Visual Logics and New Aesthetics of Protest: Transnational Reverberations and Confluences between Zapatismo and Alter-Globalization (1994–2021)
22-24 April 2026
Université Grenoble Alpes and Le Magasin
This conference seeks to explore the power of images and performative practices within social movements resisting globalization, examining their role from a dialogical and transnational perspective that foregrounds Zapatismo and the struggles of the Global South. Although such movements have often been studied within the framework of struggles for land, autonomy as well as the continuation of major Latin American insurrectionary movements, our proposal is to situate them in dialogue with Europe and its contemporary urgencies. We aim to analyze the reverberations of their mandates with the demands that mobilize society (ranging from resistance to globalization to struggles against climate change, racism, femicides, and the rise of the far right), with particular attention to the role of images and performativity. Our objective is to delve into how images shape and reveal the visual construction of the social and to understand how performative practices associated with these struggles contribute to the social imaginaries and resistance dynamics of contemporary Europe.
Le Magasin-CNAC
8 Esplanade Andry-Farcy 38000 Grenoble
13.30-14. 00 Welcome and Introduction by Sonia Kerfa (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA4), Paula Barreiro López (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès / FRAMESPA / IUF) et Julia Ramírez-Blanco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
14.00-15.00 Mabel Tapia (École Européenne Supérieure de l’Image) , ¿Exponer prácticas insurgentes? Historias incompletas « a contrapelo de la historia, de la lógica y del sentido común
15.00 – 15.15 Break
15.15-17.00 Panel « Zapatismo, Community, and the Politicization of Daily Life »
Chair: Anita Orzes (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History)
Lorena Tabares Salamanca (Indipendent Researcher), Suena el silencio: emancipaciones sonoras en los escenarios co-producidos entre los Zapatistas y Slumil K’ajxemk’op
Valeria Sánchez Michel (Universidad Iberoamericana), Las zapatistas desde la lente de Angeles Torrejón
Brian Smith Hudson (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), La pedagogía zapatista y el paisaje como producción imaginaria de comunes
17.00-18.00 La résistance des abeilles, les abeilles en résistance under the direction of Tobias Locker (Saint Louis University, Madrid)
MAISON DES SCIENCES HUMAINES, UGA
1221 Rue des Universités, 38610 Gières
10.00 Coffee
10.30-13.15 Panel « Zapatista Echoes in Aesthetic Practices »
Chair : Paula Barreiro López (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès / FRAMESPA / IUF)
Nikolay Smirnov (University of Kassel), Learning from Zapatismo in Art: Chto Delat’s Case
Yang Feng (University of Leeds), Artistic Transnational Protests for the Global South: FloodNet and the Digitised Zapatistas
Elena Ansótegui (University of Copenhaguen), ¿Cómo camina una lucha? Traducciones contemporáneas de la resistencia zapatista
Alejandro Ventura (Centro Cultural y la Escuela de Cine Dodecá, Montevideo), Jóvenes posutópicos en el cine europeo, zapatismo y la revolución blanda de Žižek.
13.15-14.30 Lunch
14.30-15.30 Alicia Puleo (Universidad de Valladolid), Ecofeminismo: una mirada verde y violeta en la lucha por otro mundo posible
15.30-17.00 Round Table The Journey of a Life: Local Organizations and International Coordination with Natalia Arcos (Casa GIAP), Métie Navajo (Artist), Amaylene (Artivist). Chairs : Sonia Kerfa (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA4) and Verónica Vallejo (Université Grenoble Alpes / ILCEA4)
17.30-19.00 Opening and guided tour of the exhibition Esthétiques rebelles : papiers et tissus du voyage des Zapatistes en Europe, Espace muséographique Joseph-Fourier, UGA.
MAISON DES SCIENCES HUMAINES, UGA
1221 Rue des Universités, 38610 Gières
9.30-10.30 Antoine Hoffmann (Université de Strasbourg) Tronçonner les images ou les faire pousser. Fragments visuels des stratégies de l’internationale fasciste et résistances
10.30-12.45 Panel « Transnational manifestations and shared creativity »
Chair: Tobias Locker (Saint Louis University, Madrid)
Marc Herbst (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano) Zapatista and EuroAmerican dreams in action (online presentation)
Cristina Morau (National University of the Arts; Romania), Queer Multitudes: Dissident Bodies and the Visual Regimes of Alter-Globalization
Eva González-Sancho Bodero (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Open Artistic Practices Through the Forms and Formats of the Commons
Nohelia Meza (Université Grenoble Alpes), El arte electrónico participativo como ejemplo de nuevas estéticas de la protesta en México: el caso de ¿La has visto…? de Dora Bartilotti
12.45-13.45 Lunch
13.45-14.45 Round Table Political Images and New Worlds to Build with Noa Buffavand (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/FRAMESPA), Cristina García Martinez (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA4), Tobias Locker (Saint Louis University, Madrid) and Anita Orzes (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History). Chair :Julia Ramírez-Blanco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
15.00 Closing remarks
Orgaizing Comitee: Paula Barreiro López (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès / FRAMESPA / IUF), Sonia Kerfa (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA4), Cristina García Martínez (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA4), Anita Orzes (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History), Julia Ramírez-Blanco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid).
With the support of Tobias Locker (Saint Louis University, Madrid).
Conference organized in the framework of the projects Esthétiques tricontinentales et leurs échos dans l’Europe du Sud (Institut Universitaire de France) and Images politiques et nouveaux mondes à construire : la culture visuelle du voyage des zapatistes pour la vie en Europe / NOVA-IMAGO-ZAP (Labex SMS de l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès) in partnership with the Université Grenoble Alpes and Le Magasin-CNAC; with the support of ILCEA4 of the Université Grenoble Alpes, the INP and the departement, as well as the international research plataforme Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s).
Contacts :
Paula Barreiro López : paula.barreiro-lopez@univ-tlse2.fr
Sonia Kerfa : sonia.kerfa@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
Cristina García Martínez : cristina.garcia-martinez@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
Anita Orzes : anita.orzes@biblhertz.it
Julia Ramírez-Blanco : julram01@ucm.es
Labex SMS, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès: https://sms.univ-tlse2.fr/
