International Workshop
Learning from the journey of the Zapatistas (Viaje por la vida) through Europe. Images, words and representations for an urgent anti-colonialism
22 April 2025
Centro Social Tres Peces Tres (Madrid)
In 2021 the Journey for Life (Viaje por la vida) took place, an initiative of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Mexico), to meet with activist collectives fighting against neoliberalism in the context of the acute eco-social crisis in Europe.
During the intense transnational preparatory work and also during the meetings themselves, thousands of documents, programs, projections and objects were generated: all this constitutes a huge common heritage that can be explored from different angles. Within this context, the question of representations is of great importance: although it is true that we live in the empire of the two-dimensional image transmitted digitally, the Journey for Life itself had a corporeal dimension that can be interpreted from the point of view of performativity. The journey was an inverted reenactment of the misnamed “conquest”, which introduces a reading against the grain of colonial history: the Zapatistas traveled from Abya Yala to reverse history, to offer their tools and practices to the activists of the former metropolis and to work together on the road to another possible Europe.
Based on the visual productions and protest actions carried out in Madrid during the Journey for Life, this workshop addresses the production and use of images and counterfactual narratives incited by Zapatista travelers, as well as their limits and challenges.
Poster10.30-11.00 Presentation of the day
11.00-12.00 Everardo Pérez (Y retiemble / Harvard University), ‘Romper el cerco’, tomar las redes sociales. Zapatismo, la Europa Insumisa y la Otra comunicación
12.00-12.15 Coffee break
12.15-13.15 Lola Sepúlveda (elsaltodiario.com / CEDOZ), Del dolor a la esperanza. Los documentos de una larga travesía
13.15-13.30 Discussion
13.30-15.30 Lunch
15.30-16.30 Sara Buraya Boned (Cultural worker at the Museo Tentacular -Museo Reina Sofía- / member of the assembly of the Institute of Radical Imagination) and Pablo García Bachiller (Architect / member of the assembly of the Institute of Radical Imagination / neighbor of Lavapiés), both were part of the Art, Culture and Media axis of the Encounter of Struggles for Life that received the Zapatista delegation.
Organizarnos en los sures de Slumil k´ajxemk´op. Alianzas sobre el precipicio del tiempo
16.30-16.45 Coffee Break
16.45-17.45 Valeria Caballero (Indipendent Curator), Carta náutica y travesía al interior de un museo: adquisición de un lote de sueños zapatistas
17.45-18.30 Conclusion and discussion. Respondent: Jorge Gaupp (Universidad Complutense Madrid)
Organization: Julia Ramírez Blanco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Maria Ruido (artista, Universitat de Barcelona), Valeria Caballero (Indipendent Curator), Fabiola Martinez (Saint Louis University, Madrid) and Tobias Locker (Saint Louis University, Madrid).
International workshop organized as part of the project Political Images and New Worlds to Build: The Visual Culture of the Zapatistas’ Journey for Life in Europe / NOVA-IMAGO-ZAP of Labex SMS and the international research platform Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s), with the support of Centro Social Tres Peces Tres and the Saint Louis University, Madrid.
Image: Photo of the event “¡No nos conquistaron!”, 13 August 2021, Puerta del Sol, Madrid.
