Associated Research

Myriam Amroun and Natasha Marie Llorens propose curatorial practice as a form of artistic research that goes beyond “metaphorizing decolonization.” The project has four principle aims: to centre the knowledge produced by the practice of curating (rather than that which it simply presents in the exhibition); to experiment with infrastructures that support “minor transnational” relationality; to experiment with institutional scale in relation to the exhibition; to work from and between two important margins of the European project—the Nordic region and North Africa—in an embodied manner that nevertheless acknowledges their distance from both.

This research project explores the intersection of art and political organization with a focus on how artistic practices contribute to shaping political futures through collective action. Building on historical continuities of resistance and revolt, the research takes its point of departure from the 1943 revolt in Maschito, Italy, a small Arbëreshë village. On September 15, 1943, the women of Maschito led a spontaneous uprising against fascist authorities. They organized barricades, communication networks, and strikes, effectively putting the fascist forces to flight and proclaiming the Republic of Maschito. Through case studies of art collectives and autonomous cultural centers, the research investigates how art creates spaces for communal recognition and free expression, fostering political imagination that resists state repression and authoritarianism.

This VR Exploratory Lab project investigates how images produced by civilians may revitalise democratic values in society when used as evidence of historical and political injustices. The approach shifts the centrality of the filmmaker in the production process to explore collective filmmaking practices as a method to facilitate justice making. Events or traces of events are captured in the proliferation of  social media images; these function as evidence that requires close reading and/or testimony by witnesses to produce meanings that are intrinsic (or not) to confirm the veracity of images. The exploratory labs undertake to investigate the indexical (authentic) images created by civilians from archival records and social media fragments from the world function to produce a cinematic interpretation of reality.