Carolina Cambre (Concordia University, Canada): “Molecular insurrections: An experiment in Visual Narrative Inquiry in Buenos Aires, Argentina”

Carolina Cambre (Concordia University, Canada): “Molecular insurrections: An experiment in Visual Narrative Inquiry in Buenos Aires, Argentina”

Talk given as part of the University of Manchester’s Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies research seminar series 2021/22 on 23 March 2022.

Abstract: I remember that I arrived that day … and I was very struck by the pullovers embracing the whole building, surrounding the whole building, um, and that image, that sensation is strange, that image, that feeling, the effect that it has, at least for me, because although, um, the pullover that embraces is something warm and it’s giving the building a hug, which I think is the meaning, for me there is also something of, of a body that is not in those clothes and that can also represent the, let’s say, all the kids that, that are not taken into account, let’s say, those, that is, in the end that’s it, it’s a piece of clothing that, and there’s a body missing there. It seems to me that it is the denied body of these boys and girls who go to this place. (Interview transcript 0007) This is the story of research conducted through visual narrative inquiry in Buenos Aires where we used photographs as a “form of field text” (Bach 2007, p. 290), but the way emotions ruptured storytelling post-facto could not be ignored. School #70 Isauro Arancibia is an unofficial Argentine self-managed school for students of all ages who live in precarious situations whether due to housing or schooling conditions; homelessness; economic hardship; or cultural violence against their ways of acting, believing and perceiving. The affective forces triggered when using an innovated photo-elicitation technique to discuss the school’s 2016 re-inauguration event and what they revealed. We situate the event, which marked and celebrated a momentary victory over the municipal authorities, as a critical incident because we found that more-than-memory of the event was reverberating on a subjective level. Individuals questioning “dominant modes of subjectivation” (Guattari & Rolnik 2007 p. 187) those produced by a capitalist system, and by beginning to observe how they reproduce or resist those modes, they initiate a validation of “molecular social practices” (p. 189). Because the practice of a micropolitics cannot ensure these molecular shifts will avoid “systems that coopt them, systems of neutralization, or processes of implosion or self-destruction” (p. 339), we refer to them as molecular insurrections. In a situation as trying and soul-wrenching as that of the Isauro, it is challenging for community members to endure, turnover is high, but change is possible. Visual and embodied ways of researching helped us connect with individuals who work on breaking down divisions of inclusion and exclusion. Here we learn, through their stories, about how a marginalized community can bring novel social forces into view, especially when focusing on relationships and acknowledging the voices of those often treated as unimportant.

Carolina Cambre is an Associate Professor at Concordia University, Montréal

Nicole Bonino (Virginia/ University of Manchester): “Cities on the Edge: Urban Migration, Art, and Eco-Hybridity in the Southern Cone”

Recording of the talk given by Nicole Bonino (University of Virginia/ University of Manchester) on 10 February 2021 as part of the University of Manchester’s Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ research seminar series.

Abstract: Theorists Néstor García Canclini, Homi Bhabha, and Edward Said investigate the phenomenon of “cultural hybridization” describing it as the emergence of a new multiculturalism in which different cultural forms coexist. According to this definition, contemporary metropolises are powerful examples of hybrid constructions, as they are the result of socio-cultural sedimentation and juxtaposition. Latin American cities are a nerve center of what I call “eco-hybridity,” a critical concept that defines the artistic products—such as novels, murals, paintings, and architectural elements—created by the modifications of the geographical and socio-cultural environment in response to the encounter between immigrants and urban settings. According to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Latin American metropolises, such as São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima and Rio de Janeiro, are home for more than 10 million people. A great amount of the urban population is represented by immigrants forced to face cultural and geographical challenges, such as social paranoia, xenophobia, and the lack of material resources which entails the spread of unregulated residential areas not suitable to guarantee a decent standard of living. In a contemporary reality characterized by massive migratory movements and global interactions it is fundamental to investigate the mutual transformations involving individuals and the urban arena where they settle down. How does urban population affect the cityscape and its racial, social, and cultural components and how are these dynamics represented in the literature and visual art of the Southern Cone? By showing architectural, artistic, and literary examples drawn from different metropolitan settings, this talk will introduce some of the implications of the concept of eco-hybridity in Latin America. Bio: Nicole Bonino holds a PhD in Latin American Literature from the University of Virginia. She is an Assistant Professor, Academic General Faculty, at the University of Virginia and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Her area of specialty is contemporary Latin American literature with an interdisciplinary focus on migratory movements, environmental humanities, and visual arts. Within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism, her interdisciplinary research examines the ways in which literature and art record cultural and environmental modifications provoked by the interactions between global diasporas and urban landscapes.