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NOSYMMETRIES SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

Artistic processes which tackle various kinds of social inequality

NOSYMMETRIES / BARCELONA SYMPOSIUM
18th October 2024. From 10 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. - 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Venue: La Capella, Barcelona
Organised by: IDENSITAT / IMARTE / La Capella

NOSYMMETRIES is an Idensitat project which, within the Creative Europe Care Ecologies programme, engages in research and the activation of artistic processes which tackle various kinds of social inequality. Based upon a residency, its following exhibition, and a symposium, our intention has been to explore the concepts of ​​critical imagination and social creativity, understanding the relationship between them as a collective process embracing a variety of perspectives. Dissidence, disputes, violence, participation, construction of the commons, visibility/invisibility, care, social justice, are just a few of the concepts which have emerged during the residencies, and which will be explored and expanded upon in the exhibition and the symposium.

The symposium will comprise talks by guest speakers, and presentations of projects selected by open call. It brings together various perspectives which problematise artistic and cultural practices connected to terms such as social justice, or the politics of fear instigated by contemporary neoliberalism on questions of identity, gender, race, migration, and the ecology of care.

The symposium will recognise the challenges of our shared dependence as well as our differences; and will explore how to face the responsibility towards care, both to give and to receive it. The symposium is an invitation to envision a future based upon this shared vulnerability, which within a neoliberal system promoting social asymmetry, leads us to consider that equality, as an objective, should be replaced by interrelated concepts such as diversity, equity and social justice.

The symposium brings together diverse voices. The morning session has been co-organised by Idensitat and the IMARTE research group of the University of Barcelona. The afternoon session has been organised by the curatorial panel which comprises the artists Xeito Fole, Andrea Corrales and iki yos piña narváez funes, with Idensitat (Irati Irulegi).


18th October. Morning session

10 a.m. - 11 a.m.   Ecologies of Reparation. A conversation between Basha Changue and Tjasa Kancler.

- Basha Changue, editorial consultant, and critical educator at AfrofemKoop, and La Casita Ediciones.
 Anti-racist and Afrofeminist activist in CNAACAT, and Espai Per Totes.


- Tjasa Kancler,  artist, activist, researcher, and Serra Hunter lecturer at Visual Arts Faculty, University of Barcelona. Member of  t.i.c.t.a.c. collective - Taller de Intervenciones Críticas Transfeministas Antirracistas Combativas and Espai Per Totes.

11.15 a.m - 12.45 p.m Presentation of projects. An Open Space for the presentation of the projects selected by Open Call on the theme of asymmetries.
- Maria Prieto “Institute of Altered Ecologies. Water as Artistic Resistance: Reimagining Care Ecologies Through Artistic Activism in Mar Menor”
- Guadalupe Patricia del Razo Martínez “Vestigis d’improvització poética (per a combatre nacionalismes)”
- Yara Haskiel “Wakeful Spirits”
- Mar Machado Colomer “El pensamiento creativo en un contexto de denuncia y solidaridad internacionalista. Acampar por Palestina en la Universitat Jaume I”
- Santiago Ferández Honrubia y Elena Sanmartín Hernández “Voices that Care”
- Álvaro Corral Cid “Faldas y cadáveres. Algunos modos de pensar en el violento pasado”
- Aitana López Rodrigo “Tenía un Jefe y me lo comí. Identidad artística en un mundo neoliberal”
- Irene Mahugo Amaro “Otros ritmos invisibles”
- Ahmed Mostafa "Nubian displacement"
- Steven Moreno Pinzón "Los espectadores y los pueblos: Sobre la autorepresentación, comunicación horizontal y la imaginación política en la provincia del Sumapaz"

1 p.m. - 2 p.m. Equity and Diversity. Conversation/debate between Valia Papastamou, team member from Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices, with Lucía Egaña and Giuliana Racco.
- Valia Papastamou is part of the Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices, a spectral institution that bridges academic research and theory, cultural, artistic practice and educational work and is dedicated to the relationship between art, feminism and technology.
- Lucía Egaña Rojas, artist and researcher, her creative practice overflows, permeating diverse territories such as technology, pedagogy, writing, and sexuality.
- Giuliana Racco, works at the intersection between art and anthropology, investigating how individuals (or groups) manage their daily lives within specific systems which aim to objectify them.

2 p.m. - 2.30 p.m. Open discussion


18th October. Afternoon session  

5 p.m. - 5.30 p.m. - Sound and poetic activations with the Don't Hit a la Negrx Collective.
- Colectivo Dont hit a la negrx is an affective community of migrant queer people who, through pleasure, celebration, and enjoyment, resist the onslaught of Spanish State racism.

5.30 p.m - 6.30 p.m -  What should transvestites be talking about? A conversation between Claudia Rodríguez and iki yos piña narváez funes
- Claudia Rodríguez is a Chilean poet, feminist, and anti-racist activist. In 2011, she was one of the founders of the first transvestite theatre company in Chile, presenting the play Historias de travestis (2011), and her own adaptation of the play Cuerpos para odiar (2015).
- iki yos piña narváez funes. Cimarrona- fugitive. Caribbean writer, performer, and cartoonist. Researches anti-colonial archives and sexual dissidence, black Caribbean memories, and spiritualities and ancestral times. They are a member of the Ayllu collective, the Periferia Cimarrona Cooperative, and the experimental group of radical black thought "in the wake" of Espacio Afro.

7 p.m - 8 p.m Putas artistas! A conversation between Linda Porn, Vera Rodríguez, Cacao Diaz, and Andrea Corrales
- Linda Porn, artist, sex worker, single mother, and migrant. She has been an activist for the rights of sex workers in APROSEX for more than 10 years. Her artworks have been presented at the San Francisco Sex Worker Film&Art festival, MoMA, MACBA, and CCCB among others.
- Vera Rodríguez ,artist, photographer. In 2000, she moved to London and started working in a peep show in Soho, in order to pay for her art photography studies. She worked in numerous strip clubs in Soho and East London, and also toured peep shows in Europe, photographing red light districts, peep shows, and sex workers.
- Cacao Diaz. Afro-descendant artist, student of musical production, performer, singer. Articulating several disciplines of the live performing arts, builds stories and vibrations through the body  from their lived experience as a migrant and trans body.
- Andrea Corrales.  Artist, researcher, university teacher, and prosex activist. She is part of the Interuniversity and Interdisciplinary Network of New Feminist Materialisms. She integrates her artistic, activist, and researcher work in projects that deal with sexual work, visual culture and critical methodologies in scientific research-creation.

8 p.m- 8 30 p.m. Sound and poetic activations with the Don't Hit a la Negrx Collective.


Venue: Centre d'Art La Capella, Calle del Hospital, 56, Ciutat Vella, 08001 Barcelona


NOSYMMETRIES SYMPOSIUM, 2024
Project by Idensitat in collaboration with IMARTE Research Group (Universitat de Barcelona) and La Capella Centre d'Art. Suported by Creative Europe and Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura. Is part of CARE ECOLOGIES 2023-2025, Creative European project lead by G&A Mamidakis (Athens), State of Concept (Athens), Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices (Volos, Greece), WHW (Zagreb) and Idensitat (Barcelona).