This workshop offers a space for dialogue and reflection on queer memories that have been erased, silenced, or distorted by the hegemonic discourses of official history. Drawing on historical archives, photography, and community memories, we will explore how LGBTIQ+ people have built forms of resistance, affection, and existence even in contexts of exclusion.
In conversation with the photographic exhibition, the workshop will seek to consider the image as an act of memory and reparation: what stories were left out of the official archives? How can we reconstruct our dissident genealogies from fragments, memories, and shared experiences?
The workshop will also invite reflection on the body, migration, territory, and queer identities in Abya Yala, understanding memory not only as a record of the past but as a living tool for imagining freer and more collective futures.
More than a lecture, it will be a participatory space for exchange, affective archiving, and the symbolic reconstruction of our dissident memories.
About the artist:
Jose Miguel Davila Salas is an advertising designer, social psychologist, cultural manager, and activist from Arequipa. His work lies at the intersection of research, artistic creation, and activism, exploring memory, identity, and dissidence from a situated, decolonial perspective rooted in the realities of Abya Yala. He holds a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the Université Paris Nanterre and a diploma in Art Direction from the Centro de la Imagen.
He has been published in anthologies of contemporary Peruvian poetry and prose, and is part of various initiatives and collectives focused on the rights and support of LGBTI+ migrants in Arequipa and Paris. Concurrently, he has participated as an actor and art director in theatrical, cultural, and publishing projects, viewing art as a space for encounter, mediation, and social transformation.
Reconstructing Dissenting Memories: Reclaiming Queer Memory Through Historical Archives
Workshop language: English.
This workshop offers a space for dialogue and reflection on queer memories that have been erased, silenced, or distorted by the hegemonic discourses of official history. Drawing on historical archives, photography, and community memories, we will explore how LGBTIQ+ people have built forms of resistance, affection, and existence even in contexts of exclusion.
In conversation with the photographic exhibition, the workshop will seek to consider the image as an act of memory and reparation: what stories were left out of the official archives? How can we reconstruct our dissident genealogies from fragments, memories, and shared experiences?
The workshop will also invite reflection on the body, migration, territory, and queer identities in Abya Yala, understanding memory not only as a record of the past but as a living tool for imagining freer and more collective futures.
More than a lecture, it will be a participatory space for exchange, affective archiving, and the symbolic reconstruction of our dissident memories.
About the artist:
Jose Miguel Davila Salas is an advertising designer, social psychologist, cultural manager, and activist from Arequipa. His work lies at the intersection of research, artistic creation, and activism, exploring memory, identity, and dissidence from a situated, decolonial perspective rooted in the realities of Abya Yala. He holds a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the Université Paris Nanterre and a diploma in Art Direction from the Centro de la Imagen.
He has been published in anthologies of contemporary Peruvian poetry and prose, and is part of various initiatives and collectives focused on the rights and support of LGBTI+ migrants in Arequipa and Paris. Concurrently, he has participated as an actor and art director in theatrical, cultural, and publishing projects, viewing art as a space for encounter, mediation, and social transformation.