The Esbrina Research Group — Subjectivities, Visualities and Contemporary Educational Environments (2021SGR00686) organizes the II Symposium El Giro Social de las Artes y la Educación Cultural Crítica, which will take place on September 4 and 5, 2026 at the Tàpies Museum (C/ d’Aragó, 255, 08007 Barcelona).
Presentation
Critical Cultural Literacy (CCL) is a way of renaming the world. It proposes, on the one hand, recognizing and engaging with the cultural practices and repertoires of marginalized groups, beyond the framework of a national culture and in purely textual or written forms. On the other hand, it involves adopting a conscious attitude toward the history, politics, socio-cultural systems, and forms of power that surround these groups, in order to displace discourses and identities that are unjust or dehumanizing (Shor, 1999). Thus, CCL can be understood as:
- The questioning of hegemonic cultural narratives based on the diversity of practices that, sometimes marginalized or instrumentalized, inhabit a plural and complex society.
- The vision of culture as a set of multimedia activities (visual, aural, electronic, gestural, spatial, etc.), linked to socio-material experiences that are crucial for the construction of meaning.
- A way of understanding education that goes beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge about texts or cultural artifacts and includes the ability to grow reflectively in the multiplicity of cultural forms that allow one to inhabit and read the world.
Adding the word critical to the term “cultural literacy” has also been the task of the European research project Exploring and Educating Cultural literacy Through Arts (EXPECT_Art), which has been running for three years in collaboration between universities, artistic collectives, public schools and communities in six countries of the European Union: Hungary, Denmark, Slovenia, Germany, Poland, and Spain. The specific objectives of the project are: 1) To explore and diversify how art education is taught and practiced in schools; 2) To identify the difficulties and limitations in developing critical cultural literacy through art education; and 3) To use artistic and participatory research methodologies, together with teachers and students in schools, to explore the potential of critical cultural education.
In this way, EXPECT_Art has sought to combine a research and pedagogical practice grounded in Cultural and Creative Writing (CCE) with the social turn in the arts (Bishop, 2006), in which art moves from the gallery or museum to an expanded field of relational practices. Thus, the artistic medium becomes the process itself, taking place in specific contexts and seeking to generate socio-cultural links or foster the exchange of situated knowledge (Helguera, 2011).
Following the one held in May 2024, this second symposium on the social turn of the arts will serve to explore its intersection with CCL regarding the following themes in school contexts connected with other environments and communities:
- Artistic practices as the driving force behind a critical cultural education.
- Minority cultural practices and their capacity to reread/rename the world.
- Learning relationships between minority communities and schools.
Guiding questions
- How can arts education empower students to distrust and question everything that is naturalized and normalized?
- How can artistic practices be introduced into school curricula to articulate an education for social justice, committed to social change and destabilizing naturalized, normalized, and standardized knowledge?
- How do marginalized cultural practices challenge representations, histories, and knowledge as socially constructed narratives?
- How does the curricular relationship with communities serve to produce knowledge and learning that fosters estrangement, understood as a process that encourages students to critically distance themselves from hegemonic ideas and perspectives?
- To what extent do the arts in schools assume that students are capable of engaging in mature dialogues and inquiries, and of experiencing personal and collective transformations?
Program
Friday September 4, 2026
9.30h
Registration
10.00h
Welcome
Imma Prieto
Director of Museu Tàpies
10.15h
Introduction to the symposium and to the EXPECT_Art project
Aurelio Castro Varela
Universitat de Barcelona
11.00h
Una invitación a preguntarnos desde dónde nombramos el mundo
Keynote
Alfons Espinosa y Marta Comes
Chair:
Fernando Hernández
Universitat de Barcelona
12.00h
Break
12.15h
Contributions round 1
Group 1
Maestrxs no humanos: Una educación artística postantropocéntrica
Oral communication
Pedro Ernesto Moreno García (Universidad de Jaén)
Cosmopolítica en el aula. Hacer ciencia de otro modo mediante metodologías artísticas en una escuela de educación primaria de Barcelona
Oral communication
Aurelio Castro Varela (Universitat de Barcelona), Fernando Hernández Hernández (Universitat de Barcelona) Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal (Universitat de Barcelona)
Desmuntar el bloqueig: Art, metacognició i inconscient davant els reptes globals
Artistic action
Carmen Sanjuán Pertusa (Educadores i Educadors per una Ciudatania Global)
Group 2
Les arts com a manera d’expandir la noció del cos en el currículum de primària. El cas del Taller Artístic de quart de primària en un institut escola del Carmel
Oral communication
Mònica Ruiz Revuelta (Universitat de Barcelona), Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal (Universitat de Barcelona), Silvia de Riba Mayoral (Universitat de Girona)
Fact & fiction en el aula: fabricar nuevos imaginarios de futuro desde Kainos
Oral communication
Karla Gabriela Román Mendoza (Universitat de Barcelona)
Lo que la escuela borra. Pupitres, paredes y la cultura visual clandestina del aula como archivo de la comunidad universitaria
Poster
Irene Blanco Monteagudo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Chairs:
Laura Malinverni
Universitat de Barcelona
Joan Miquel Porquer
Universitat de Barcelona
13.15h
Rastros del proyecto EXPECT_Art
Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal
Universitat de Barcelona
Andrea Naya Berges Martínez
Universitat de Barcelona
Joan Miquel Porquer Rigo
Universitat de Barcelona
Aurelio Castro Varela
Universitat de Barcelona
14.00h
Lunch break
15.00h
La construcción de comunidades en proyectos de arte y educación
Conversation table
Participants:
Roser Sanjuan
Director of the La Panera art center in Lleida and head of public programs
https://www.lapanera.cat/
Ariadna Rodríguez
Artist, researcher, and teacher. Together with Iñaki Álvarez, she is the driving force behind Espai nyamnyam, dedicated to the intersection of visual and live arts, critical thinking, and pedagogy
https://www.nyamnyam.net
Ángela Palacios
Researcher and teacher, promoter of collaborative and cultural mediation projects such as Larre and Fireplace
https://angelapalacios.net
Chair:
Ramon Parramon
Universitat de Barcelona
16.15h
Break
16.30h
Contributions round 2
Group 1
Tinc tantes preguntes! El concurs Teresa Barba com a dispositiu pedagògic de pensament crític
Oral communication
Maria Sellarès Pérez (Museu Tàpies)
¿De quién es esta casa? La (in)hospitalidad institucional en el taller ‘Vivim el barri’ de la Filmoteca de Catalunya
Oral communication
Ana Gnagui Irigoyen (Universitat de Barcelona)
Impulsar un departament educatiu en un centre d’art digital
Oral communication
Raquel Torrecilla i Pallarés (NEWART centre)
Group 2
Corporeïtzant l’educació artística crítica al grau de mestre/a d’educació primària: cap una educació implicada en imaginar altres futurs possibles
Oral communication
Judit Onsès (Universitat de Girona), Silvia de Riba (Universitat de Girona)
Pedagogies performatives i visualitat crítica: Una proposta d’aprenentatge corporitzat per a professorat d’Educació Física
Oral communication
Patricia del Razo (Universitat de Vic), Montserrat Martin Horcajo (Universitat de Vic),
Ester Checa Corcoy (Universitat de Vic), Sarai Garbin (Universitat de Vic)
‘Ver es acercarse a las cosas’: Más allá de la división entre universidad y escuela en la formación del profesorado en artes y culturas visuales
Oral communication
Ana Tudela-Sousa (Universidade de Lisboa)
Chairs:
Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal
Universitat de Barcelona
Joan Miquel Porquer
Universitat de Barcelona
18.00h
Contributions round 3
Group 1
Gentrifi-què!? Què li passa al barri? A través de la deriva, la fotografia i la narrativa l’alumnat de 1r ESO resignifica els espais de cura i resistència del barri del Fort Pienc
Oral communication
Tura Tremoleda (Institut Angeleta Ferrer), Amèlia Mañà (Institut Angeleta Ferrer) y Ananda Aznar (Institut Angeleta Ferrer)
La ciudad ideal: Participación política e imaginación radical de futuros con jóvenes de un colegio público portugués
Oral communication
Mariana Bacelar (Universidade de Porto), Fernando Hernández-Hernández (Universitat de Barcelona), Isabel Menezes (Universidade de Porto)
‘La Ciutat que Volem’. Arquitectura y Urbanismo como práctica artística infantil
Oral communication
Tamara Ianowski (Asociación Transita), Núria Rello (Asociación Transita), Natalia Giraldo (Asociación Transita), María Jesús Catalán (Asociación Transita)
Dibujar el futuro desde la imaginación
Acció artística
Karla Gabriela Román Mendoza (Universitat de Barcelona)
Group 2
Narrar per desnaturalitzar. Les pràctiques narratives en l’educació artística com a espais d’assaig de nous relats
Oral communication
Alba Oller-Benítez (Massa Salvatge Coop), Teresa Mata-Ferrer (Massa Salvatge Coop)
Canciones de pinsapos: Sonar/soñar a través del storytelling en investigación y educación artística
Artistic action
Pedro Ernesto Moreno García (Universidad de Jaén)
‘Crítica social: Stop a l’arbre de la ignomínia’
Oral communication
Carmen Sanjuán Pertusa (Educadores i Educadors per una Ciudatania Global)
Chairs:
Aurelio Castro Varela
Universitat de Barcelona
Mònica Ruiz Revuelta
Universitat de Barcelona
19.00h
End of day one
Saturday September 5, 2026
9.30h
Respuestas culturales críticas de las escuelas
Conversation table
Participants:
Arantza Meñaca
Directora de l’escola Drassanes (Barcelona)
Francesc Martínez
Director de l’escola Sant Jordi (Vilanova i la Geltrú)
Chair:
Mònica Ruiz Revuelta, Joan Miquel Porquer
Universitat de Barcelona
11.15h
Break
11.30h
Contributions round 4
Group 1
Casandra y otras sibilas migratorias
Artistic action
Itziar Larrieta Mena (Institut del Teatre de Barcelona)
Enredar la teoría_desbordar el margen: Trazando afectos entre la investigación académica financiada y la práctica artística comunitaria desde el medio rural
Oral communication
Andrea Naya Berges (Universitat de Barcelona)
Narrativas adolescentes sobre la soledad: La experiencia colaborativa del podcast La Sole
Oral communication
Dolores Mendy (Universitat de Barcelona)
Group 2
Un taller de cocina: Prácticas, saberes y preguntas que se ponen sobre la mesa escolar
Oral communication
María Jesús Catalán Gárate (Universitat de Barcelona) y Taluana Laiz Martins Torres (Universitat de Barcelona)
Ensoñaciones de barro. Para una pedagogía andrógina (de agua y de tierra)
Oral communication
Sofía Delgado (Universidad de Barcelona)
M: Magatúrgia de la Matèria (una acció ritual-poètica inspirada en Antoni Tàpies)
Artistic action
María Hernández (Universitat de Barcelona)
Chairs:
Aurelio Castro Varela
Universitat de Barcelona
Fernando Hernández
Universitat de Barcelona
13.00h
Manifest for a Critical Cultural Education
Chair:
Andrea Naya Berges Martínez
Universitat de Barcelona
13.30h
End of the symposium
Contributions
The symposium is open to presentations in the format of oral communication, poster/graphic support and artistic action.
A maximum of two proposals per person may be submitted (in any of the provided formats), and a person may be listed as an author on a maximum of three proposals. The languages for submitting proposals are: Catalan, Spanish and English.
Proposals must be submitted following this model:
- Title of the proposal.
- Authors, affiliation, and email address.
- Presentation format (oral communication, poster/graphic support or artistic action).
- Proposal summary (up to 3,500 characters including spaces, not including references).
- 3 to 5 keywords.
- Mini-biography of the author person or group (up to 500 characters including spaces).
- Motivation (Why do you want to participate? What can you contribute? What do you hope to learn?) (up to 1,000 characters including spaces)
- Optionally: Additional notes and observations (in the case of artistic actions, for example, special or space requirements).
The proposals will be sent through the following form
All proposals will be evaluated by the symposium’s scientific committee based on the relevance of the topics covered, originality, and quality. A monograph will also be published following the symposium, and proposals may be submitted for further details.
Important note: The symposium venue will have the basic elements necessary for the presentations to take place. In the case of presentations in the form of posters/graphic displays, or artistic performances, the organization cannot be held responsible for their production. Generally speaking, the artists must provide the necessary materials and support for their creation.
Key dates
Until 17/07/2026 (included)
Contribution proposals submission
24/07/2026
Feedback on proposal evaluation
Until 2/09/2026
Registration to the Symposium
1-2/09/2026
Communication summaries sent to registered participants to facilitate dialogue
4-5/09/2026
Symposium takes place
Accreditation
At the end of the activity, participants who meet the attendance requirement will receive a certificate of participation issued by the Institute for Professional Development (IDP) of the University of Barcelona in their registered email. For teachers in the Department of Education and Vocational Training of the Government of Catalonia, this certificate will be directly added to their training record on the XTEC platform and can be used as accreditation to participate in the Department’s various selection processes, under the terms and conditions specified in each call for applications.
Header image by Javier Esteban on Unsplash
Date
September 4 and 5, 2026
Registration
Registration for the conference is free. The deadline for registration is September 2.
In the case of teachers assigned to the Department of Education and Vocational Training of the Generalitat de Catalunya (opens June 15):
In the case of keynote speakers and other participants:
Venue
Museu Tàpies
C/ d’Aragó, 255
08007 Barcelona
Organized by
EXPECT_Art is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101132662. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Organizing committee
- Aurelio Castro Varela, UB
- Fernando Hernández Hernández, UB
- Laura Malinverni, UB
- Mònica Ruiz Revuelta, UB
- Joan Miquel Porquer Rigo, UB
- Xavier Giró Gràcia, UB
- Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal, UB
- Andrea Naya Berges Martínez, UB
Scientific committee
- Aurelio Castro Varela, UB
- Fernando Hernández Hernández, UB
- Gabriela Espinosa Hormazábal, UB
- Ramon Parramon Arimany, UB
- Joan Miquel Porquer Rigo, UB
