Feminist Artivism: The Personal is Political. Art, Decoloniality, and New Feminine Imaginaries

Art, Decoloniality, and New Feminine Imaginaries

Abstract

In this article I propose that feminist Artivism is articulated as a contact zone between art and socio-political movements, an articulation that today is expressed with particular strength among Latin American feminisms (Lois 2020). I also argue that feminist artivism de-eliticizes and cracks the colonial guidelines of the fine arts (McComarck 2021), both in its theoretical production and in its artistic praxis. The new aesthetic proposals of feminist artivism invite us to use artistic platforms as a form of protest against the colonial, patriarchal and capitalist violence exercised on our feminine and racialized bodies (Moura and Cerdeira 2021). Moreover, feminist artivism places at the service of feminist social demands, inviting us to deconstruct the imaginaries of the feminine and to denaturalize patriarchal violence. In this text I expose some feminist artivist works to exemplify some of my main ideas. Also, related to the exhibition “Reclaiming the body: feminism, territory, and community” organized by Un curso propio (2022), an academic-militant group to which I belong, I briefly present the installation “Mujer Basura” by the collective La marcha de las putas BS. AS.