The community of educators, students, youth workers and young people that has grown around the Lives in Motion project and Lives in Motion: The Game has further deepened their knowledge and reflections on decoloniality and decolonial narrations. In Palermo (Italy), this community, together with two photographers who work daily to promote decolonial forms of photographic representation and storytelling, organised a presentation and exhibition on the topic.
A live “in-conversation” with Lizet Aguilar and Francesca Scelfo (see biographies below) and the Lives in Motion team introduced the community to the “Eyes that Resist”: the Pallaqueras, women working in the goldmines of the Andes in Peru; and the Compañeroas Zapatiste, women, trans* and queer people, activists, militants, artists, educators, farmers, mothers, daughters and sisters from across the world who gathered for the Second International Meeting of Women in Struggle in the Chiapas mountains.
The photographs in the exhibition and the words of the photographers spoke of consensual, participatory, critical and politically engaged photography that positions its subjects as actors of history, of transformation, of struggle. Such photography posits visual storytelling as a historical-political contribution, where the way societies are narrated and traversed influences their continuous transformations and the movements and actions of their people. The event provided a rich opportunity for the Lives in Motion community to broaden the collective critical reflection on the ways that decoloniality can be put into practice in cultural and educational experiences, as well as a moment to discuss the power dynamics of politically motivated and labour related migrations in different parts of the world from a non-eurocentric perspective.
Biographies:
Lizet Aguilar. Peruvian photographer and activist of Quechua descent, during her travels Aguilar retraces the sensations and atmosphere of her country of origin. Active in Rome, Lizet carries out multimedia research on the identities and roots of migrants, exploring decolonial and cultural narrations with a transfeminist gaze.
Francesca Scelfo. Psychologist and documentary photographer, interested in the psychosocial consequences of structural changes. Scelfo looks at issues such as housing precarity, mental health challenges, the gendered division of labor and the environment. Scelfo is currently carrying out a PhD in gender studies.
The initiative was part of Lives in Motion, a non-formal educational project created by Maghweb in partnership with CPS, ANP | WFF and Polylogos, funded by the EACEA in the CERV, strand European Remembrance.
