Art, politics and counterculture in the transatlantic axis from the Cold War to contemporaneity
Decentralized Modernities is an international research platform that brings together researchers from different centres in Europe, South and North America. In its current configuration, it develops two main lines of work. The first focuses on a comparative analysis of centres of the Atlantic axis, emphasising the forms of mediation, negotiation and resistance to the ideological, aesthetic and cultural schism of the Cold War. The second studies the impact that (social, cultural and political) forms from this historical period still have today, both on the configuration of the realities of our present time and on current artistic practices.
The idea is to highlight the links between the artistic/cultural world and social and labour, as well as national liberation and counter-cultural movements that conveyed dissident responses to the Cold War’s geopolitical order, contributing to decentralize the normative, western and colonial modernity.
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Visual Logics and New Aesthetics of Protest: Transnational Reverberations and Confluences between Zapatismo and Alter-Globalization (1994–2021)
The conference “Visual Logics and New Aesthetics of Protest: Transnational Reverberations and Confluences between Zapatismo and Alter-Globalization (1994–2021)” (UGA / Le Magasin, 22-24 April 2026) 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.
Rebel aesthetics: remnants of the Zapatistas’ journey to Europe
The exhibition “Rebel aesthetics: remnants of the Zapatistas’ journey to Europe” (Grenoble, April 23 – May 18, 2026) explores the Journey for Life (2021), a Zapatista initiative aimed at engaging with European grassroots collectives. Through images, objects, and archival materials, it examines the role of art in the circulation of struggles and the creation of shared imaginaries.
Archival Fever in the Exhibition: Critical Intertextualities, Politics and Display Practices from the Cold War to Global Contemporaneity
The symposium “Archival Fever in the Exhibition: Critical Intertextualities, Politics and Display Practices from the Cold War to Global Contemporaneity” (Les Abattoirs / Bibliothèque d’Études Méridionales, December 4-5, 2025) seeks to reflect on exhibitions through the lens of archives and historical records preserved on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Julia Ramírez Blanco
Performer le commun. Les mouvements sociaux et artistiques et le rôle de l’auto-théâtralité dans la création de la communauté
(Toulouse, 7 April 2023)
Jacopo Galimberti
Sens commun : groupe d’artistes comme expression du commun ?
(Toulouse, 7 April 2023)
Patricia Oliart
Políticas prefigurativas. Feminismo, solidaridad y creatividad en Lima 2023
(Toulouse, 7 April 2023)