The San Isidro Collective and dissensual art practices in contemporary Cuba

San Isidro Collective是一个跨学科的古巴艺术行动主义团体，由参与政治的艺术家组成，他们通过参与、表演、诗歌、电影和装置来创造一个围绕自由和正义的讨论空间。它成立于2018年，是为了响应古巴政府实施第349号法令，该法令赋予文化部监督和控制艺术生产的权力。该法律的预期效果是在实质上使古巴对艺术的审查制度化，这是政府在该国扼杀持不同政见者动力的战略的公然延续。因此，本研究通过采用跨学科的方法来分析艺术和政治主体性，探讨了是什么使这种特殊的“艺术主义”运动具有独特的力量。首先，我将借鉴参与式艺术、“艺术主义”和数字表演的理论，将1989年后文化生产中“社会艺术”的回归置于语境中，并解读艺术家的线上和线下集体行动策略。其次，我对过程的关注将需要转向主体性理论，以分析艺术家如何塑造他们的现实，以及它如何激发他们的艺术和政治参与。最后，该项目的总体意图是将艺术的非感性潜力理论化，以提供新的解放范例。为了做到这一点，雅克·朗西<s:1> (Jacques ranci<e:1>)的异议框架定义了两种异质逻辑之间的冲突，将其转移到一个平等的平面上，将阐明这群处于古巴霸权文化生产边缘的艺术家如何通过艺术干预潜在地表现异议。在此基础上，该项目以以下研究问题为指导：古巴国际知名的“艺术家”运动圣伊西德罗集体的政治和艺术实践是什么？我们如何根据参与性和关系性艺术的理论，以及朗西<e:1>雷对审美的非感性政治的理论化来理解他们的艺术主义？这样的理解如何揭示在压迫和威权主义的背景下，艺术实践与政治主体性和主体性的形成和构成之间的复杂关系？通过民族志的方法——包括参与观察、半结构化访谈和非正式对话——我打算参与并参与艺术家的日常活动：从帮助组织和参与活动、展览和会议，到观察他们在线上和线下社交网络上的沟通策略，再到询问他们的个人和职业关系、习惯和梦想。这种民族志方法将使我能够“接近”艺术家，并观察作为古巴政治参与艺术家的日常体现。交叉性理论和批判性人种学将密切指导我在研究的各个阶段的反思和数据收集过程。这个关于艺术的非感性潜力的案例研究有助于“艺术主义”的新兴研究领域，因为它将实时询问艺术作为一个集体和包容性的跨国空间的能力，以思考新的可能性。在古巴革命意识形态支配个人和集体身份、道德和行为的专制背景下，认识到艺术家们的创作过程，将为我们提供宝贵的见解，让我们了解不同意见如何为主观解放创造新的工具。

The San Isidro Collective is an interdisciplinary Cuban art-activism group of politically engaged artists who turn to participation, performance, poetry, film, and installations to generate a space of discussion around freedom and justice. It was formed in 2018 in response to the Cuban government's implementation of Decree 349, a law that grants the Ministry of Culture oversight and control over artistic production. The law's intended effect is to substantively institutionalise censorship over art in Cuba, an overt continuation of the government's strategy of stifling dissident impetus in the country. This research therefore explores what makes this particular 'artivism' movement uniquely powerful by adopting an interdisciplinary approach to analyse artistic and political subjectivities. First, I will draw on theories of participatory art, 'artivism', and digital performance to contextualise the return of 'social art' in post-1989 cultural production and to decipher the artists' strategies of online and offline collective action. Second, my focus on processes will require turning to theories of subjectivity for analysing how the artists shape their reality and how it inspires their artistic and political engagements. Finally, the overarching intention of the project is to theorise art's dissensual potential for offering new emancipatory paradigms. To do so, Jacques Rancière's framework of dissensus, which defines a conflict between two heterogeneous logics transposed onto an equal plane, will elucidate how this collective of artists, poised at the margins of Cuban hegemonic cultural production, potentially perform dissent through artistic interventions. On this basis, the project is guided by the following research questions: What are the political and artistic praxes of Cuba's internationally-known 'artivist' movement, the San Isidro Collective? How can we understand their artivism in light of theories on participatory and relational art, and Rancière's theorisation of the dissensual politics of the aesthetic? How might such an understanding shed light on the complicated relationship between artistic practices and the formation and constitution of political subjecthoods and subjectivities in contexts of repression and authoritarianism? Through ethnographic methods - including participant observation, semi-structured interviews and informal conversations - I intend to be involved and participate on the side-lines in the artists' day-to-day activities: from helping to organise and participate in events, exhibits and conferences, to observing their communication tactics on both online and offline social networks, to enquiring about their personal and professional relationships, habits and dreams. This ethnographic approach will enable me to 'get close' to the artists and observe the routine embodiment of being a politically-engaged artist in Cuba. Theories of intersectionality and critical ethnography will intimately guide my reflexive, data collection process during all stages of the research. This case study on the dissensual potential of art contributes to an emerging field of research on 'artivism', as it will inquire, in real-time, about the capacity of art to serve as a collective and inclusive transnational space for thinking of new possibilities. Recognising the artists' processes in an authoritarian context where personal and collective identities, morals, and behaviours have been dictated by Cuba's revolutionary ideology will offer invaluable insight into how dissensus creates new tools for subjective emancipation.