ABSTRACT
Mauricio Kagel has created a large number of works noted for their unusual conceptual and theatrical forms over the past forty years. These forms present remarkably consistent philosophical and cultural views and processes that subvert and dismantle various existing systems in distinctly similar ways. In addition, those processes seem parallel to some of the more self-conscious philosophies of postmodernism, including deconstruction, through their implosion of existing hierarchies and narratives. Although the comparison with deconstruction may seem ahistorical, if one invokes the possibility of cultural ideas emerging from a Zeitgeist rather than from the ideas of individuals, Kagel was just a bit ahead of his time: an essentially sarcastic reaction to one's surroundings—colleagues, works and training—can overturn the modernist universe, and create a consciousness that can never forget that it is permanently “post.”
