event
Anthropology and Sociology
Tuesday
10
March
Full Poster for ANSO Seminars Spring 2020

ARTIVISM. Art and Activism. Creativity and Performance as Subversive Forms of Political Expression in Super-Diverse Cities

Monika Salzbrunn, Université de Lausanne
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Room S5, Petal 1 | Maison de la paix, Geneva

ANSO Seminar

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Abstract

Artistic expression represents an original way to show political criticism and demand for civil rights. But how do citizens use art in activism or activism in art to create multiple forms of resistance? The ERC funded project ARTIVISM. Art and Activism. Creativity and Performance as Subversive Forms of Political Expression in Super-Diverse Cities explores new artistic forms of political expression in multicultural cities, in times of crisis and/or in oppressive conditions. Prof. Salzbrunn and her team (Dr. Raphaela von Weichs, Federica Moretti and Sara Wiederkehr) focus on a broad range of artistic tools, styles, and means of expression such as festive events and parades, cartoons and comics, and street art. Their work is based on multisensory ethnographic research including film-making and drawing in three principal urban settings on three continents: 1. Europe: Italian and French towns with a strong tradition in Carnival parades and carnivalesque style figures (masquerade, détournement) in political demonstrations and performances, 2. Africa: gateway cities in Cameroon with creative and satirical comic art, 3. North-America: Latino immigrant cities in California (US) with powerful mural paintings. Building on urban studies, migration studies, and the anthropology of art and performance studies, Monika Salzbrunn and her team aim to understand how social actors engage artistically in order to trigger social, economic and political change. Following a multi-sensory approach, the researchers combine audio-visual methods with field crossing. The presentation at IHEID Graduate Institute Geneva Research colloquium will provide first results after three years of fieldwork and theoretical and methodological reflections.

 

About the Speaker

Monika Salzbrunn is Full Professor of Religions, Migration, Diasporas at University of Lausanne, invited research professor at Università degli Studi di Genova and associated researcher at CéSOR/EHESS Paris. She is the first female scientist in Switzerland to receive the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant in Social and Human Sciences, for her project on ARTIVISM. Art and Activism. Creativity and Performance as Subversive Forms of Political Expression in Super-Diverse Cities. Monika Salzbrunn was principal investigator of the projects “(In)visible islam in the city. material and immaterial expressions of muslim practices within urban spaces in Switzerland”/l’Islam (in)visible and « Undocumented Mobility and Digital-Cultural Resources after the ‘Arab Spring’ », funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Monika Salzbrunn has published numerous articles and books in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese about artistic political and religious performances in urban spaces and written several documentary films. She was visiting professor at the Japan Women’s University Tokyo and at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan and is currently member of the research group POPADIVCIT/DIVCULT, Popular Arts, Diversity and Cultural Policies in Post-Migration Urban Settings of the European Excellence Network IMISCOE.