Diaspora. Art Stories from Barcelona
"Diásporas" reflects on the histories of the diaspora from the work of some artists who introduce counter-hegemonic narratives in their practice. We cannot understand diaspora without introducing concepts such as roots, borders, national identity or racism. In every process of dispersion is latent an intention to belong to a new context, as if it were a process of transplantation. But, with what frictions and hostilities are these people received?
"Histories of art from Barcelona" is a program that presents new perspectives on what the normalized discourse of art history has buried or has directly ignored. It is a proposal to open new spaces for debate in the classroom and raise doubts based on art. The program includes a series of open videos, made with the collaboration of various artists, theorists and activists, and the corresponding dossiers for teachers, which contain lines of action and expanded content.
Chapter 3 of this program is included in the e-learning materials of the project Our Many Europes.
Related activities
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–MACBA
The Open Kitchen. The fermented seed, colonialism and extractivism
The MACBA Kitchen is a working group situated against the backdrop of ecosocial crisis. Participants in the group aim to highlight the importance of intuitively imagining an ecofeminist kitchen, and take a particular interest in the wisdom of individuals, projects and experiences that work with dislocated knowledge in relation to food sovereignty.
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MACBA
The Kitchen: Workshop by Marina Monsonís
The Kitchen is a meeting place open to the participation of all, especially people and organizations that want to share their knowledge and experiences around the kitchen.
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–MACBA
Where are the Oases?
PEI OBERT seminar
with Kader Attia, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Emily Jacir, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Nuttall and Françoise VergèsAn oasis is the potential for life in an adverse environment.
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MACBA
Mobile Garden. A Place to Meet
An open space, a social space. How could the Museum be more open to the needs of the neighbourhood?
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MACBA
Anti-imperialism in the 20th century and anti-imperialism today: similarities and differences
PEI OBERT seminar
Lecture by Ramón GrosfoguelIn 1956, countries that were fighting colonialism by freeing themselves from both capitalism and communism dreamed of a third path, one that did not align with or bend to the politics dictated by Washington or Moscow. They held their first conference in Bandung, Indonesia.
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–MACBA
Song for Many Movements: Scenes of Collective Creation
An ephemeral experiment in which the ground floor of MACBA becomes a stage for encounters, conversations and shared listening.
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–MACBA
Before We Go Down in History (we have to make a living) I. Class Composition
Two-day seminar organised by MACBA as part of Museum of the Commons and the year-long project ‘[contra]panorama’.
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MACBA
The Open Kitchen. Map of edible tensions
with Marina Monsonís, Paisanaje and Ruralitzem
The MACBA Kitchen is a working group situated against the backdrop of ecosocial crisis. Participants in the group aim to highlight the importance of intuitively imagining an ecofeminist kitchen, and take a particular interest in the wisdom of individuals, projects and experiences that work with dislocated knowledge in relation to food sovereignty. -
MACBA
Spiral of Time
Sound is intangible and ephemeral, yet it can be one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the places it inhabits. Spiral of Time is a site-specific work, created and developed by the Dutch artist, composer, and researcher Edwin van der Heide, that explores sound and its relationship with space and time. This is a participatory time-based work, where meaning is created through active listening and the navigation of each person. The work is integrated in this page and can be accessed below. Furthermore, it will also be presented as an installation towards the end of 2025.
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–MACBA
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
Curated by MACBA director Elvira Dyangani Ose, along with Antawan Byrd, Adom Getachew and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica is the first major international exhibition to examine the cultural manifestations of Pan-Africanism from the 1920s to the present.
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–MACBAMuseo Reina Sofia
School of Common Knowledge 2025
The second iteration of the School of Common Knowledge will bring together international participants, faculty from the confederation and situated organizations in Barcelona and Madrid.
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–Museo Reina SofiaMACBA
Open Call – School of Common Knowledge 2025
Museo Reina Sofía and MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) invite applications for the 2025 iteration of the School of Common Knowledge, which will take place in Madrid and Barcelona 11-16 November 2025. The School of Common Knowledge (SCK) draws on the network, knowledge and experience of L’Internationale. Its ambition is to be both nomadic and situated, looking at specific cultural and geopolitical situations while exploring their relations and interdependencies with the rest of the world. This year, the SCK program focuses on the contested and dynamic notions of rooting and uprooting in the framework of present – colonial, migrant, situated, and ecological – complexities. Building on the legacy of the Glossary of Common Knowledge and the current European program Museum of the Commons, the SCK invites participants to reflect on the power of language to shape our understanding of art and society through a co-learning methodology.
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MACBA
PEI Obert: The Brighter Nations in Solidarity: Even in the Midst of a Genocide, a New World Is Being Born
PEI Obert presents a lecture by Vijay Prashad. The Colonial West is in decay, losing its economic grip on the world and its control over our minds. The birth of a new world is neither clear nor easy. This talk envisions that horizon, forged through the solidarity of past and present anticolonial struggles, and heralds its inevitable arrival.
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MACBA
PEI Obert: Bodies of Evidence. A lecture by Ido Nahari and Adam Broomberg
In the second day of Open PEI, writer and researcher Ido Nahari and artist, activist and educator Adam Broomberg bring us Bodies of Evidence, a lecture that analyses the circulation and functioning of violent images of past and present genocides. The debate revolves around the new fundamentalist grammar created for this documentation.
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MACBA
School of Common Knowledge: Fred Moten
Fred Moten gives the lecture Some Prœposicions (On, To, For, Against, Towards, Around, Above, Below, Before, Beyond): the Work of Art. As part of the Project a Black Planet exhibition, MACBA presents this lecture on artworks and art institutions in relation to the challenge of blackness in the present day.
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–MACBA
Visions of Panafrica. Film programme
Visions of Panafrica is a film series that builds on the themes explored in the exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, bringing them to life through the medium of film. A cinema without a geographical centre that reaffirms the cultural and political relevance of Pan-Africanism.
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MACBA
Farah Saleh. Balfour Reparations (2025–2045)
As part of the Project a Black Planet exhibition, MACBA is co-organising Balfour Reparations (2025–2045), a piece by Palestinian choreographer Farah Saleh included in Hacer Historia(s) VI (Making History(ies) VI), in collaboration with La Poderosa. This performance draws on archives, memories and future imaginaries in order to rethink the British colonial legacy in Palestine, raising questions about reparation, justice and historical responsibility.
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MACBA
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica OPENING EVENT
A conversation between Antawan I. Byrd, Adom Getachew, Matthew S. Witkovsky and Elvira Dyangani Ose. To mark the opening of Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, the curatorial team will delve into the exhibition’s main themes with the aim of exploring some of its most relevant aspects and sharing their research processes with the public.
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MACBA
Palestine Cinema Days 2025: Al-makhdu’un (1972)
Since 2023, MACBA has been part of an international initiative in solidarity with the Palestine Cinema Days film festival, which cannot be held in Ramallah due to the ongoing genocide in Palestinian territory. During the first days of November, organizations from around the world have agreed to coordinate free screenings of a selection of films from the festival. MACBA will be screening the film Al-makhdu’un (The Dupes) from 1972.
Related contributions and publications
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Algunos términos que guían a lumbung press: Definiendo “edición”
Erick BeltránEN eslumbungSituated OrganizationsMACBA -
In the Battles of Language / En las batallas del lenguaje
Marina Garcés, Silvia Rivera CusicanquiDialoguesMACBA -
Evidence, Activism And The Law in the Age of Post-Truth
Baltasar Garzón, Eyal Weizman, Yolanda Álvarez, Manuel VergaraDialoguesMACBA -
THE MUSEUM YET TO COME. Exercises of institutional imagination
Pablo MartínezHDK-ValandMACBA -
L’Internationale Public Statement on the recent events at MACBA
L’Internationale ConfederationStatements and editorialsMACBA -
L'Internationale statement in support of the decision to open "La Bestia y el soberano" (The Beast and the Sovereign)
L’Internationale ConfederationStatements and editorialsMACBA -
On Riots, Grief and Parties
MACBA -
Diaspora. Art Stories from Barcelona
Tania Safura Adam, Aldemar MatiasMACBA -
Hard Gelatin. Hidden Stories from the 80s
MACBA -
Opening Performance: Song for Many Movements, live on Radio Alhara
Jokkoo with/con Miramizu, Rasheed Jalloul & Sabine SalaméEN esInternationalismsSonic and Cinema CommonsPast in the PresentMACBA -
Live set: Una carta de amor a la intifada global
PrecolumbianEN esInternationalismsSonic and Cinema CommonsPast in the PresentMACBA