Anti-ableist theater and artivism

Abstract

This study examines the anti-ableist artivism of the Compañía de Teatro Visión Imposible, a theater company composed of persons with visual disabilities in Punta Arenas, Chile. The study aimed to analyze how theatrical interventions in public spaces can transform subjectivity, challenge structural exclusions, and foster cultural citizenship. Using a qualitative approach, focus groups (conducted before and after the intervention) and a photo-ethnographic study of a street performance were conducted. Data were examined through Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodal Visual Analysis. Three key themes were identified: (1) political subjectivation emerging from bodily experience and pain toward agency; (2) social structures of ableist exclusion and centralism; and (3) art as a tool for symbolic and social transformation. The findings show how artivist practices re-signify public space, contest normative discourses, and strengthen the collective positioning of people with disabilities. The study concludes that artivism, as both an expressive and political strategy, enables individuals to confront the ableist social order by making their bodies and memories visible in historically exclusionary urban contexts. Street theater emerges as a tool of resistance, social pedagogy, and cultural agency. From the perspective of occupational therapy, this approach expands the understanding of participation, inclusion, and transformation from both aesthetic and political standpoints.

Keywords:
Social Activism; Art; Ableism; People with Disabilities; Theatre