Paula Barreiro López will give the conference Une guérilla des choses ? Objet, subversion et anti-impérialisme quand le fond de l´air était rouge [A guerrilla of things? Object, subversion and anti-imperialism when the atmosphere was red] in the seminar Arts et Sociétés, directed by Laurence Bertrand Dorléac at the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies), on Wednesday October 26th, 2016.

In its 2016-2017 edition, the seminar entitled “Pourquoi revenir aux choses?” [Why returning to things?] is focused on cultural matter and the relationship between things and representations. Paula Barreiro López’s conference is the third session of this year-long seminar.

Conference abstract
Une guérilla des choses ? Objet, subversion et anti-impérialisme quand le fond de l’air était rouge
If, in 1967, Germano Celant spoke of a “guerrilla povera” and Umberto Eco of a “semiotic guerrilla” in Italy, in 1968, Julio Le Parc in France, and Roberto Matta in Cuba appealed to a ” Cultural guerrilla” “in all areas where subversive thought and imagination had a role to play.” Direct and collective action, but also the recovery of the subversive value of “things” – as products of the repressive economic and ideological model that, for them, sustained the power of the West – were at the heart of actions of artistic and cultural guerrilla since 1967. Through case studies, the conference will propose to speak of a guerrilla of things considering the role of the object in the configuration of a direct and anti-imperialist action on both sides of the Atlantic, between 1967 and 1975.

Seminaire Arts et Sociétés
26 octubre 2016, 17h00
Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po
56, rue Jacob – 75006 Paris

To attend the seminar prior registration is required: artsetsocietes@gmail.com

Image: Helena Serrano, Day of the heroic guerrilla, 1968.