Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz
Where does the political agency of migrant art reside? In contrast to analyses centered on testimony or representation, this article argues that its critical force is fundamentally methodological. Drawing on a framework that integrates border thinking (Mignolo) as an epistemology of exteriority, bla...
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UNIVERSIDAD ANTONIO NARIÑO
2026
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.uan.edu.co/index.php/nodo/article/view/2391 |
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| author | Lara Ruiz, Raquel Borges Da Silva, Felismino |
| author_facet | Lara Ruiz, Raquel Borges Da Silva, Felismino |
| author_sort | Lara Ruiz, Raquel |
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| description | Where does the political agency of migrant art reside? In contrast to analyses centered on testimony or representation, this article argues that its critical force is fundamentally methodological. Drawing on a framework that integrates border thinking (Mignolo) as an epistemology of exteriority, black feminist critique (Lorde, hooks) as a theory of the gaze, and the agency of matter (Bennett) as a political ontology, we argue that the migrant condition activates poetics of remaking: formal and material strategies that translate the experience of displacement into critical procedures. A comparative analysis of Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau, and Lara Ruiz identifies three such strategies: 1) sovereign self-inscription, which establishes the body as a counter-archive; 2) transcultural material synthesis, which ritualizes mourning in matter; and 3) relational cartography, which produces the common through co- creation. Beyond their diversity, these practices converge in deactivating the spectacular aesthetics of trauma through specialized material tactics—over- inscription, materialization, and repair—that constitute an immanent critique of the necropolitical regime of the border. The article’s main theoretical contribution is the concept of an “aesthetics of the commons”, defined here in critical dialogue with its conservative genealogy (Hardin, 1968), yet reappropriated from a decolonial and feminist perspective as a material performance of the common. This concept synthesizes the political imaginary prefigured by the work of the selected artists: a horizon in which the common is performed as a sovereign body, material memory, and shared ground. Thus, the article repositions the debate, demonstrating that political transformation in migrant art is not proclaimed, but enacted through making. |
| format | Digital |
| id | revistas.uan.edu.co-article-2391 |
| institution | Revista NODO |
| language | spa |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | UNIVERSIDAD ANTONIO NARIÑO |
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| spelling | revistas.uan.edu.co-article-23912026-06-17T02:45:54Z Aesthetics of the Commons on the Migratory Phenomenon in the Work of Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau, and Lara Ruiz Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz Lara Ruiz, Raquel Borges Da Silva, Felismino Arte y migración Metodología artística Estudios decoloniales feminismo interseccional estética común Feminismo Interseccional Fronteras Experiencias Art and migration Artistic methodology intersectional feminism decolonial studies aesthetics of the commons Feminism Intersectional Borders Experiences Where does the political agency of migrant art reside? In contrast to analyses centered on testimony or representation, this article argues that its critical force is fundamentally methodological. Drawing on a framework that integrates border thinking (Mignolo) as an epistemology of exteriority, black feminist critique (Lorde, hooks) as a theory of the gaze, and the agency of matter (Bennett) as a political ontology, we argue that the migrant condition activates poetics of remaking: formal and material strategies that translate the experience of displacement into critical procedures. A comparative analysis of Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau, and Lara Ruiz identifies three such strategies: 1) sovereign self-inscription, which establishes the body as a counter-archive; 2) transcultural material synthesis, which ritualizes mourning in matter; and 3) relational cartography, which produces the common through co- creation. Beyond their diversity, these practices converge in deactivating the spectacular aesthetics of trauma through specialized material tactics—over- inscription, materialization, and repair—that constitute an immanent critique of the necropolitical regime of the border. The article’s main theoretical contribution is the concept of an “aesthetics of the commons”, defined here in critical dialogue with its conservative genealogy (Hardin, 1968), yet reappropriated from a decolonial and feminist perspective as a material performance of the common. This concept synthesizes the political imaginary prefigured by the work of the selected artists: a horizon in which the common is performed as a sovereign body, material memory, and shared ground. Thus, the article repositions the debate, demonstrating that political transformation in migrant art is not proclaimed, but enacted through making. ¿Dónde reside la agencia política del arte migrante? Frente a los análisis centrados en el testimonio o la representación, este artículo sostiene que su potencia crítica es fundamentalmente metodológica. Partiendo de un marco que integra el pensamiento fronterizo (Mignolo) como epistemología de la exterioridad, la crítica feminista negra (Lorde, hooks) como teoría de la mirada, y la agencia de la materia (Bennett) como ontología política, argumentamos que la condición migrante activa poéticas del rehacer: estrategias formales y materiales que traducen la experiencia del desplazamiento en procedimientos críticos. El análisis comparativo de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz revela tres de estas estrategias: 1) la auto-inscripción soberana, que erige el cuerpo en contra-archivo; 2) la síntesis material transcultural, que ritualiza el duelo en la materia; y 3) la cartografía relacional, que fabrica lo común mediante la co-creación. Más allá de su diversidad, estas prácticas convergen en desactivar la estética espectacular del trauma a través de tácticas materiales especializadas —sobre-inscripción, materialización, reparación— que constituyen una crítica inmanente al régimen necropolítico de la frontera. La principal contribución teórica del artículo es el concepto de “estética de los comunes”, que se define aquí en diálogo crítico con su genealogía conservadora (Hardin, 1968), pero se reapropia desde una perspectiva decolonial y feminista como una performance material de lo común, que sintetiza el imaginario político prefigurado por la obra de las artistas seleccionadas: un horizonte donde lo común se performa como cuerpo soberano, memoria material y suelo compartido. Así, el artículo reubica el debate, demostrando que la transformación política en el arte migrante no se anuncia, sino que se ejecuta en el hacer. UNIVERSIDAD ANTONIO NARIÑO 2026-05-26 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf https://revistas.uan.edu.co/index.php/nodo/article/view/2391 10.54104/nodo.v20n40.2391 REVISTA NODO; Vol. 20 Núm. 40 (2026): Diversidad, activismos y transformaciones. Las mujeres en la investigación-creación artística; 84-101 2346-092X 1909-3888 10.54104/nodo.v20n40 spa https://revistas.uan.edu.co/index.php/nodo/article/view/2391/1816 Derechos de autor 2026 Raquel Lara Ruiz, Felismino Borges Da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Arte y migración Metodología artística Estudios decoloniales feminismo interseccional estética común Feminismo Interseccional Fronteras Experiencias Art and migration Artistic methodology intersectional feminism decolonial studies aesthetics of the commons Feminism Intersectional Borders Experiences Lara Ruiz, Raquel Borges Da Silva, Felismino Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title | Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title_alt | Aesthetics of the Commons on the Migratory Phenomenon in the Work of Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau, and Lara Ruiz |
| title_full | Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title_fullStr | Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title_full_unstemmed | Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title_short | Estéticas de los comunes sobre el fenómeno migratorio en la obra de Zanele Muholi, Marta Palau y Lara Ruiz |
| title_sort | esteticas de los comunes sobre el fenomeno migratorio en la obra de zanele muholi marta palau y lara ruiz |
| topic | Arte y migración Metodología artística Estudios decoloniales feminismo interseccional estética común Feminismo Interseccional Fronteras Experiencias Art and migration Artistic methodology intersectional feminism decolonial studies aesthetics of the commons Feminism Intersectional Borders Experiences |
| topic_facet | Arte y migración Metodología artística Estudios decoloniales feminismo interseccional estética común Feminismo Interseccional Fronteras Experiencias Art and migration Artistic methodology intersectional feminism decolonial studies aesthetics of the commons Feminism Intersectional Borders Experiences |
| url | https://revistas.uan.edu.co/index.php/nodo/article/view/2391 |
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