autohistorias, the programme

The students and curators in the 'Artists & Exhibition Professions' programme are presenting autohistorias, a group exhibition inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa, a Chicana feminist theorist, activist and poet. In an unpublished text, she proposes writing as a way of defining oneself through theory, fiction, mythologies, linguistic games and poetry. Through individual stories and fiction, it is a question of constructing a collective narrative, conceived as an alternative tool to the dominant narratives.

"If I do not have access to the truth, I will invent it, I will tell myself, preferring my fictions to the lies and truths that others fabricate for me, about me". (Gloria Anzaldúa, Ethnic Autohistorias-teorías: Writing the History of the Subject).

In 1989, Gloria Anzaldúa wrote a formally inventive text that oscillated between poetry, personal narrative and historical and political commentary. The essay is a toolbox. Anzaldúa encourages an active subjectivity and invites us to seize our intimate histories and fiction to shape our collective narratives.

The exhibition brings together works by student artists, works from the heritage collections of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and works by guest artists. Self-portraits, hybrid collages, invented languages and parallel worlds - made up of personal histories and intimate archives - are on display. autohistorias creates a shared space-time born of intersubjectivity, the enunciation of a common narrative and the emergence of a common narrative.

Events based on autohistories are offered every week.

Programme