The PICANTE FESTIVAL is consciously chosen as a parallel event to the Caliente Festival. The Caliente Festival has evolved since 1995 from a folk festival in the streets of the multiethical Kreis 4 to a closed event in the area of the Kaserne and hence not accessible to the general public but only to those with paid tickets. Within that context the „Latin American scene“ is mostly portrayed in an exotic and sexualized manner.
The PICANTE FESTIVAL pursues to show the plurality of the Latin American underground, queer and feminist cultures to expand the general eurocentric view on the percieved realities.
The goal is to create this through the means of the PICANTE FESTIVAL, where artists from various Latin American countries and Switzerland invite to this exploration. We started this approach in 2022/23 when we lived and worked in Buenos Aires, where we built our first connections to artists and activists of the place. In collaboration and joined forces our aim is to create rooms and experiences where new ways of practicing identities and different perceptions of gender in general and particularly within Latin American culture in Switzerland can be lived and explored.
As the artists themselves live and represent this, their art expresses those mentalities and concepts.PICANTE FESTIVAL will create the possibility to rethink, relabel and that for give birth to a new and different practice. Consequently there will be a shifting of perceptions.
To oppose the generally patriarchal and conservative music industry and the particularly sexist Cumbia and Rap scene we enjoy to offer non-heterodominated zones, where everyone can love and dance as they please, with help of musicians from different genres and various genders as well as artwork and performances from multiple Latin American countries.
Our community festival is a queer feminist one that also aspires the idea of the right to the city for all, which has always been a part of our artwork like including concepts of queer-feminism and the approach of DIY or DIVA. (Do-It-Vith-Athers) practises. We see this aspects to be a necessity for a healthy and rich cultural life. The contemporary mainstream still lacks conciousness and visibility of these characteristics which we claim necessary.
Being FINTA*persons ourselves we know of the painful current realities and are driven even more throughly to manifest a space where we can claim these particular Latin American music styles connecting the queer underground scenes from Switzerland, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica and beyond.
We are very passionate about the Ni una Menos movement, which has significant presence in Zurich. PICANTE FESTIVAL intends to amplify this movement.
