Francesca Cozzolino donnera une conférence dans le cadre de la 17 ème conférence internationale de la European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) intitulée « Transformation, hope and commons » qui se tiendra a la School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast 26-29 July, 2022

Date : Jeudi 28 juillet 14h30-16h30 en ligne
https://easaonline.org/conferences/easa2022/

Lors de la 17ème édition de la Biennale de l’association européenne d’anthropologie sociale, Francesca Cozzolino donnera la conférence intitulée « Linking art practices and activist networks. Echoes of resistance between Mexico and Europe».
Cette conference se tiendra en ligne dans le cadre de la session n° P165 intitulée « Engaging with aesthetic forms: Approaching the sociopolitical embedding and agency of arts»
Cette communication interrogera l’agence politique de l’art à partir des artefacts produits par des artistes mexicains et des membres de groupes militants européens pour accompagner le voyage d’une délégation zapatiste en Europe. Ce cas amène à réfléchir sur la manière dont la production d’artefacts graphiques peut activer des processus de politisation.

Résumé :
This paper explores the political agency of art through the ethnography of artistic practices undertaken by artists and activists as part of the « Journey for Life ». This is a project carried out by the Zapatista movement to meet activist groups, which call themselves « Europe from below », in the five continents, and whose first act, called « Capitulo Europa », was achieved in Madrid on 7 December 2021.
Several artists and collectives have joined this initiative, such as Antonio Griton, who contributed with the sale of his works to finance the journey of a Zapatista delegation or the Mexican street artist Grand OM who has taken charge of the production of posters and communication elements for this unexpected journey to Europe.

At the same time, in the countries destined to host the delegation, other artists and activists have deployed several strategies to support the Zapatista journey by producing collective fanzines, posters, or even board games. This is the case of a French illustrator who, since April 2021, has been publishing episodes of a comic strip documenting the meetings between the members of the Zapatista delegation and the social collectives that, from Europe, adhere to the project of social and political transformation defended since 1994 by the EZLN.

This case allows us to reflect on how the political performativity of art manifests itself at the articulation of an aesthetic of resistance and social movements.
If we rely on the work of anthropologists who have theorized the agency of art at the iconic (Gell, 1998) or ontological (Descola, 2019) level, however, it is in the field of political agency that we wish to question the operational modes of artistic productions as well as the functions that are devolved to them in contexts of political protest.
How do actors mobilize art to produce forms of autonomy or resistance to neo-liberal logics? How do these practices structure the organization of militant collectives?

Légende d’image :
Oeuvres produites par les communautés zapatistes dans le cadre du « Voyage pour la vie ». Musée Reina Sofía, Madrid, 10 juin 2022.
Photo : Francesca Cozzolino.