Two-voice autoethnography: The critical potential of our artistic-academic-feminist practices

Abstract

Starting from a group of questions about the critical potential of feminist and activist artistic practices, the objective of the article is to reflect from the concept of experience, on our own practices as teachers, researchers, artists and activists between the past and the present. From the methodological commitment of feminist autoethnography, we place at the center our own lived experience from the situated and the transversal; we construct a two-voice narrative as the product of a systematic, multi-stage and nonlinear process. The theoretical coordinates that we intertwine with history itself, range from the feminist critiques of art field by Karen Cordero, Martha Rosler and Julia Antivilo; the commitment to “between women” by Raquel Gutiérrez; the orphic socialities of Raluca Soreanu; situated thinking pointed out by Verónica Gago; and the aspiration capacity raised by Arjun Appadurai, as developed knowledge, among others. In four sections: 1) The tag: how do you reach a group of women to talk about feminism and art?; 2) How do you learn to work together? art, research and social problems; 3) The feminist collectives; and 4) The feminist outbreak and the “between us in network”; we develop our analysis. We conclude with final reflections that show the magmatic nature of contemporary feminisms, the tensions we face and the powerful knowledge and learning acquired by living a feminist life and from collective creativity.