Time, space, and matter are conventional notions that remain unquestioned in the core definition of contemporaneity. However, what would happen with the concept of 'contemporary' if detached from the traditional idea of what is known as 'now'? What if time was not translated as a moment that happens after another? What If matter could not be mapped within spaces but understood as a play between existence and non-existence? I will argue that the problem with contemporaneity is that it does not recognize differences between contexts and political implications. Instead, it implies an idea of neutrality and universality imposed from Western perspectives on the rest of the globe, causing the erasing of 'other' histories, cultures, and aesthetics.
My research question is elaborated as follows: how can the deconstruction of the linearity of time rethink how we understand the body within the performing arts? To answer this question, I will discuss the notion of neutrality and its relation to the politics of time and suggests a reading of performance and the body as phenomena. Furthermore, this paper attempts to offer decolonial thoughts that can be applied within the performing arts to highlight its multiple singularities and relational perspectives.
This research begins with an agential understanding of the body (matter) proposed by physicist and philosopher Karen Barad, who, through the lens of Quantum Field Theory, offers us the concept of intra-action as an attempt to disrupt the linearity of time, the homogeneity of space, and the materiality and politics of the body. I bring to light two important principles that merge Barad's agential intra-actions, "situated knowledge" brought by Donna J. Haraway and "body-territory" developed by Brazilian professor Eduardo Miranda. Furthermore, I will introduce a dilemma presented by the philosopher Bojana Kunst to disturb the temporal aspects of the performing arts and defend the idea of a "dis-eventualization" of performance. Finally, I will present a decolonial shift offered by Rolando Vázquez, acknowledging the colonial influence of Euro-American aesthetics and claiming the ‘end of the contemporary.’