The San Isidro Collective and dissensual art practices in contemporary Cuba

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.