💡From Feeling to Resisting: Artivist Impacts and Knowledge of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Mexico

We are extremely proud to announce that La Casa Mandarina AC and the University of York, United Kingdom, began a two-year collaborative research project: “From feeling to resisting: artivist impact and knowledge on sexual and gender violence in Mexico”. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Mexico has one of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence in the world. Women and trans people are particularly at risk.

Artivism is the use of art for resistance and social transformation.

• Educates the public and challenges social norms.

• Creates knowledge about under-researched forms of SGBV.

• Constitutes a form of advocacy.

• Central to understanding contemporary feminism in Mexico and Latin America.

• Provides spaces to heal and redefine trauma.

• Changes public policies.

• There are artists who engage in activism through their art, and there are activists who use art in their actions.

• Build collective memory.

Artivists’ expertise often goes unacknowledged in academia and policy.

However, it changes lives.

Our research provides a unique contribution:

• Creates a link between theory and practice (activist-academic partnership).

• Participatory art-based feminist methodology.

• Collaborates directly with 40 artivists.

• Co-produces new knowledge about the diversity of experiences and strategies of resistance.

• Explores the power of artivism to disrupt traditional narratives about SGBV.

• Reflects on the role of art in social mobilization and collective feminist activism in high-risk contexts.

• Documents the experiences and lessons learned from feminist artivism in Mexico.

• Embodied, situated, and contextual analysis.

• Creates artistic products to generate debates and partnerships with other audiences.

• Builds collective memory.

The amazing team project includes Harriet Gray (principal investigator) and Melissa Chacón (co-investigator) from the University of York, United Kingdom. Mora Fernández and Eréndira Derbez  (co-investigators) from La Casa Mandarina AC, Mexico.

Click here to learn more about this collaborative research project.