Art can be a vehicle for expressing the concerns, difficulties and injustices that people experience in their daily lives. In addition, through protests, performances, documentaries and other art forms, individual and collective artists can achieve positive changes in their environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf someone resists, if someone takes to the streets, if someone uses different strategies to communicate some social grievance, something is not working in that society,\u201d says Salvador Leetoy<\/a>, research professor at the School of Humanities and Education<\/a> (EHE) of Tec de Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, artistic practices can trigger actions that have a social impact. Artivism<\/a> \u2013a term that comes from combining the words art<\/em> and activism<\/em>\u2013 refers to this type of project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, Leetoy<\/a> and a network of researchers from the humanities, sociology, law and other disciplines have dedicated themselves to studying artivism and understanding how art can be a political force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, their research has lead to the Artivism Laboratory<\/strong>, a virtual and physical space\u2013which will be based at the Guadalajara Campus<\/a> of Tec de Monterrey\u2013 focused \u2013mainly\u2013 on creating an academic record of the different artivism projects in Mexico and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want to create a true archive of artivism experiences to talk about the possibility of art to get involved in things that affect us daily,\u201d says the researcher. \u201cWe also want to open spaces for dialogue, analysis and research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is that a network of Mexican and Latin American artists and researchers whose focus is to analyze the use of art as a means of activism will collaborate in this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, the laboratory does not exist yet, since its founders are working to get the funding they need to develop it. \u201cIt is a project for the near future, but it already has a lot of research behind it,\u201d says Leetoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the members who are already a part of this network are Leetoy, Diego Zavala<\/a>, research professor at the EHE, Mar\u00eda de la Cruz Castro<\/a>, research professor at the EHE, and Carlos Cerda<\/a>, research professor at the School of Social Sciences and Government<\/a> (ECSG) of Tec de Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of this is based on the idea of finding intervention formulas to design a public policy that is much closer to the local needs of vulnerable groups, such as feminist, LGBTQI+ , or indigenous groups,\u201d says Leetoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the expert, artivism can foster a dialogue with decision-makers and politicians in each city, state or country to find real solutions to different problems, such as discrimination, gender violence, insecurity associated with drug trafficking, the climate crisis or forced disappearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Guadalajara, as in other cities, there is a long tradition of artists groups that use art as a form of social action, promoting a participatory citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is an active communication that arises from the communities themselves towards the development of different forms of questioning and resistance to different aspects that violate their good living,\u201d explains Leetoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some examples of artivism in Mexico -and in other countries- are the Colectiva Hilos<\/a><\/em>, a group of female artists, sociologists and designers who use embroidery to denounce the inequality, insecurity and violence that prevails in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The collective uses red thread to create large textile pieces. \u201cThese monumental textiles are used in demonstrations or interventions to make the bloodshed visible, it looks impressive,\u201d says Leetoy.<\/p>\n\n\nThe Artivism Laboratory at Tec de Monterrey<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Artivism in Mexico and the World<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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