Hacia una descolonización de la ingesta: el colectivo indigestão y la indigestión del gusto

Abstract

In this article, I explore the performance "Como era gostoso o meu antropofago" (2013) by Indigestao, a Brazilian artistic collective. I analyze the ethical, erotic, and political dimensions of the culinary practices of Indigestao. Drawing on Cătălin Avramescu’s ideas on taste as a key concept and instrument for the violent colonization process of the “New World”, I show how Indigestao's artistic and culinary practices parody, transgress, and intoxicate that concept. I divide my argument into two sections. First, I examine the relationship between colonial power, food, mouth, and taste to problematize what I call the colonization of ingestion. In the second section, I show how Indigestao refuses and confronts that colonization through the installation of what I called an abject kitchen, an undisciplined taste, and a political antibody.