Independent Studies Programme (PEI), 10th Edition

How can we be in solidarity when there is no possibility of being solid, when things are broken and fragile? The poem Sol y dar y dad (To Give and Give Sun), from the palabrarmas series by artist Cecilia Vicuña, is neither a programme nor a definition, but a word-dance of political restlessness. It raises urgent questions for the inadmissible present: What can solidarity of vulnerabilities mean for the people who need, practice, and live it? Can it be danced when bodies are exhausted and isolated, when they feel the pressure of the rising neofascism that is crushing them? Artistic solidarity is not representation but togetherness. It is the articulation of stories of life and struggle – in all of their complicated beauty and violence,-striking back. In the global context of increasing criminalisation of solidarity, this 10th edition of the PEI asks how to share, activate, archive, document, inhabit and create collective histories and experiences that not only oppose silencing and annihilation, but that also chart geographies of solidarity built through resistance and alliances of diverse subalternities. This, with the understanding that solidarity can also be problematic, and recognizing that rather than a union of similarities, forging generative bonds amidst difference is possible. Centring artistic solidarity, we depart from the urgent need to investigate, put into practice, circulate and multiply the tools capable of uniting struggles of the past in – and from the perspective of – the present. In its practice and organisational work, ‘Sol y dar y dad’ articulates the creation of new knowledges, relations, and connections that can make and remake our world. ‘Sol y dar y dad’: Collective Learning for an Inadmissible Present is a continuation of the collective research that formed part of the MACBA project Song for Many Movements: Scenes of Collective Creation (2024), an unfolding of binding constellations, alliances, networks and artistic tools of solidarity through time and in different geographies. This edition will include a pedagogical committee and three research threads which will be developed through a series of seminars and collective research groups together with the PEI student-participants:

– Pan-Africanisms, organized by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Tania Safura Adam (Archivos Negros) and Ingrid Blanco. This thread will investigate anticolonial and postcolonial solidarity beyond racialisation through artistic practices, aesthetics and archives. In line with the exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Pan-Africa, the seminars will deal with content linked to Pan-Africanism and its struggles for transnational and planetary solidarity. The collective research group will delve into Archivos Negros.

– Solidarity of Bodies, organized by Nancy Garín (Equipo re, Cosmographies). What kinds of bodies do the dominant regimes consider dispensable? This research thread resituates the hiv/aids pandemic – that forever politicised healthcare and which today disproportionately affects the Global South – in the present, in order to continue mobilising networks of mutual care, community health, autonomous pharmacologies, and cultural and artistic activism. Collectivities led by racialised, crip and gender-dissident bodies. Solidarities of bodies whose very existence is resistance.

– Counterinformation, organized by Erick Beltrán-Lumbung Press. Radio, agitprop cinema and graphic militancy have long histories as vehicles of solidarity and resistance. Exposing the media’s false claims of ‘objectivity’ or ‘neutrality’ (or the supposed freedom of expression of social media), there is an established and rich history of counter-informational tactics and media. At a time when photographic documentation, printing and publishing are once again considered dangerous, this research group will examine the notion of a solidarity press through the collective practice of Lumbung Press. This 10th edition of the PEI and its committee will be led by María Berríos, Director of Curatorial Programmes and Research at MACBA, who will also conduct a core seminar on Artistic Solidarities and Internationalisms of the past and present: from museums of solidarity and resistance, alliances of artists against apartheid and current groups and initiatives that recognise art and culture as relevant weapons of resistance, counterattack and revolution.

The lines of exploration of these seminars will be complemented, nurtured and interwoven with contributions from invited local and international artists, educators, organisers, theorists and collectives, generating intersectional points of encounter, among them are: Cecilia Vicuña, Ntone Edjabe-Chimurenga, Diego Falconi, Equipo re (Aimar Arriola, Linda Valdés, Nancy Garín), Grupo Etcétera, Javier García Fernández, Learning Palestine Group, Marwa Arsanios, Pip Day, Radio Alhara, and Vijay Prashad-Tricontinental Institute.

Infrastructural solidarity: The collaborating organisations and institutions of the 10th edition of the PEI include Hangar centre de producció i recerca artística; L’Internationale Online; HDK Valand; and Fundación María José Jove. Registration: The program’s application guidelines and dates will be available for consultation and download here soon. _{Image: Cecilia Vicuña, Sol y Dar y Dad, 1974/2023. MACBA Collection. MACBA Consortium. Donation by the artist.}