(Audio)visual Artivist Research in Anti-Colonial and Anti-Racist Key

Abstract

This article conceives of the University as a laboratory for the creation of anti-racist and anti-colonial practices through arts, communication, and education. It proposes the realization of (audio)visual artivist practices with an anti-colonial and anti-racist focus as the articulating axis of artistic creation experiences, art education, and educational research. It suggests the creation and exhibition of commented collages and short films of appropriation as instruments for individuals and groups to question colonialism and racism, both in the fields of audiovisual, visual, and sound culture, as well as in the field of their family, school, and cultural consumption formation; while promoting the re-existence of native and Afro-descendant identities, cultures, knowledge, and memories. It employs conceptual and methodological tools of critical pedagogy, visual anthropology, and film studies to describe how anti-“Indian” and anti-“Black” racism and the appreciation for cultural and physical whiteness can be reproduced and resisted. It recovers testimonies from situated processes of critical reflection on one’s personal and family history in relation to the reproduction of colonial and racist violence. It describes a methodological proposal to make (audio)visual artistic analysis and creation tools in the construction of knowledge and emotions for the social transformation of reality, and instruments to build a culture of peace, social justice, and historical memory.