Revista de História da Arte

Argentine Countercultural Magazines in the 1980s: a Reading in Context

2026-02-25T22:36:11+00:00

Our task has been to analyse a set of so-called countercultural magazines from 1980s Argentina. These graphic publications constituted artifacts that constructed sensitivities by developing modes of dissent against the ruling power, forms of territoriality, and insertion into the public sphere that allowed for the possibility of building political-affective networks. The approach adopted in the analysis has allowed us to understand these periodicals as devices involving discourses and practices that reveal ways of conceiving the world that helped shape subjectivities. A varied body of textual, visual, and contextual elements has been considered for this study.

We put forward a few hypotheses about the selected period, which includes both the final years of the last Argentine civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983) and the early years of post-dictatorship, revisiting the main topics discussed in the literature on the period. Our analysis thus implies a consideration of the transformations that took place in these practices during this transition period from dictatorship to democracy, in order to account for ruptures and continuities in their development.

Countercultural Splinters, Cultural Metamorphoses and Artistic Differences in Post-dictatorship Portugal

2026-02-25T23:30:42+00:00

The article examines the trajectory of Paula Ferreira, a pioneer of Portuguese underground culture and the first woman to own a comic bookshop and to create a fanzine in Portugal, situating her activity in the post-dictatorship period of the late 1970s. Adopting a socio-historical approach, the article explores how Ferreira established herself as a cultural agent within a field marked by gender inequalities and by the invisibility of underground culture and countercultural movements. Methodologically, the study draws on a semi-structured interview and a narrative reconstruction of Ferreira’s trajectory, articulating individual memory with its wider social context. The article highlights the role of urban spaces, informal networks, and alternative cultural economies in the emergence of new forms of youth subjectivity in a country that had only recently emerged from a dictatorship and remained dominated by cultural traditionalism and a broader closure towards Europe and the world.

A Memória como Ruína, a Ruína da Memória: (Re)Configurações dos Resquícios de uma Ditadura nos Livros de Artista de Ana Vidigal

2026-02-25T23:46:31+00:00

This article seeks to analyse the work of the Portuguese artist Ana Vidigal, focusing particularly on her artist's books, which serve as a vehicle for working on the articulation of individual and collective memories of the dictatorship in Portugal. In this sense, we will discuss how Vidigal uses techniques of collecting and overlaying various fragments, mixing personal, family, political, and cultural memory to create critical aesthetic compositions about the dictatorship, the colonial war, and the condition of women. Interpreting her creative process from the perspective of studies on cultural memory and archive we explore the idea of productive memory and the role of archives as ruins that are reconfigured through artistic practice. The reflections of authors such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Andreas Huyssen, Marianne Hirsch, and Aleida Assmann, among others, are called upon here to highlight the potential of the artist's book as a space for dialogue between past and present.

Beyond the Book, but Still Attached: Publishing by Artists in Chile in the 1990s and 2000s

2026-02-25T23:33:36+00:00

As in other Latin American countries, post-avant-garde artistic practices in Chile suffered the impact of a ferocious dictatorship. Forced to resist censorship and prosecution, they were often connected to positions of political dissent, showing a desire to reclaim public spaces and involve spectators in the production of meaning. Despite these difficulties, artist publishing under Pinochet underwent a period of extremely rich experimentation. Examining the period following the advent of democracy, this essay analyses some examples of artistic initiatives from the so-called ‘1990s generation’: publications by the collectives Jemmy Button Inc. and Muro Sur, and one of the works by Voluspa Jarpa, who was a member of both groups.

Post-dictatorship Re-editions in South America: Two Case Studies from Chile and Uruguay (1970s / 2010s-2020s)

2026-02-25T23:37:55+00:00

As authoritarian regimes became widespread in Latin America in the 1970s, a number of experimental artists and poets found in the Mail Art network a way to circumvent censorship, allowing them to continue to make their voices heard beyond the borders of their respective countries. This extraterritorial network allowed them to circulate their small publications, pamphlets, postcards and little collective magazines far and wide. Several of these publications have recently been reissued: in recent years Naranja Publicaciones in Chile has republished several of Guillermo Deisler’s works from the 1970s; while in Montevideo, Microutopía reissued Instrumentos/74, a booklet by Clemente Padín, in 2019. Why and how should these publications, conceived several decades ago in a particular political context, be reedited today? Based on two case studies, this article seeks to outline possible ways of understanding this phenomenon and analysing the issues at stake, between preserving a cultural heritage and confronting or engaging with certain current artistic and political developments.

Lola Nomdedeu, Clara Beltrán and Uberto Stabile: ‘La imprenta era una plaza’. On Marginal Press in Post-Franco Spain

2026-02-26T13:00:35+00:00

Bidayat Magazine: to Radical Beginnings, Slow Thought and Collective Action. Interview with Cynthia Kreichati and Jana Traboulsi

2026-02-26T13:00:35+00:00

From Souffles to En Toutes Lettres: Moroccan Independent Publishing Across Generations. Interview with Kenza Sefrioui

2026-02-26T13:00:36+00:00