Aesthetics of Peace and Desertion Tactics

Study Group

Research

Date and time
Date and time
Date and time

Duration: 120 mins
Audience: Addressed to researchers across various practices and disciplines

Admission

Free until capacity is reached. Prior registration required via email to centrodeestudios@museoreinasofia.es before September 21, 2025, providing full name, participation modality (in-person or online) and motivation: what motivates you to enroll in this study group? (max. 3000 characters) and what research questions do you engage with in your professional practice? (max. 3000 characters)

Place: Nouvel Building, Floor 5, Study Center 2, and online
Capacity: 20 people
Sessions and times: Alternate Wednesdays - 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Language: Spanish and English

Online

Miralda and Benet Rossell, París. La Cumparsita, 1972. Museo Reina Sofía — Miralda and Benet Rossell, *París. La Cumparsita*, 1972
Museo Reina Sofía

The study group Aesthetics of Peace and Tactics of Desertion: Prefiguring New Pacifisms and Forms of Transitional Justice proposes a rethinking—through both a theoretical-critical and historical-artistic lens—of the intricate network of concepts and practices operating under the notion of pacifism. A term not without contestation and critical tension, pacifism gathers under its name a multiplicity of practices—from anti-militarism and anti-war movements to non-violence activism—while simultaneously opening urgent debates around violence, justice, reparation, and desertion. Here, pacifism is not conceived as a moral doctrine, but as an active form of ethical and political resistance capable of generating aesthetic languages and new positions of social imagination.

Through collective study, the group seeks to update critical debates surrounding the use of violence and non-violence, as well as to explore the conflict of their representation at the core of visual cultures. In a present marked by rearmament, war, genocide, and the collapse of the social contract, this group aims to equip itself with tools to, on one hand, map genealogies and aesthetics of peace—within and beyond the Spanish context—and, on the other, analyze strategies of pacification that have served to neutralize the critical power of peace struggles. Transitional and anti-punitive justice proposals will also be addressed, alongside their intersections with artistic, visual, and cinematic practices. This includes examining historical examples of tribunals and paralegal activisms initiated by artists, and projects where gestures, imaginaries, and vocabularies tied to justice, reparation, memory, and mourning are developed.

It is also crucial to note that the study programme is grounded in ongoing reflection around tactics and concepts drawn, among others, from contemporary and radical Black thought—such as flight, exodus, abolitionism, desertion, and refusal. In other words, strategies and ideas that articulate ways of withdrawing from the mandates of institutions or violent paradigms that must be abandoned or dismantled. From feminist, internationalist, and decolonial perspectives, these concepts have nourished cultural coalitions and positions whose recovery today is urgent in order to prefigure a new pacifism: generative, transformative, and radical.

Aesthetics of Peace and Tactics of Desertion, developed and led by the Museo Reina Sofía’s Studies Management, unfolds through biweekly sessions from October to June. These sessions alternate between theoretical discussions, screenings, work with artworks and archival materials from the Museo’s Collection, reading workshops, and public sessions. The group is structured around sustained methodologies of study, close reading, and collective discussion of thinkers such as Judith Butler, Elsa Dorlin, Juan Albarrán, Rita Segato, Sven Lütticken, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Franco “Bifo” Berardi; historical episodes such as the anti-nuclear and anti-arms race movement in Spain; and the work of artists and activists including Rojava Film Commune, Manuel Correa and the Oficina de Investigación Documental (Office for Documentary Investigation), and Jonas Staal, among other initial cases that will expand as the group progresses.

Directed by

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga and Lola Visglerio Gómez

Coordinated by

Elena Corrales Pérez and Ana Vidal González

Organised by

Museo Reina Sofía

Participant Selection
Particular consideration will be given to candidates whose background and interests align with the study group's contents, as well as their commitment to regular attendance in the chosen format (on-site or online).
Participation requires a biweekly time commitment of two and a half hours per session, in addition to preparation time.