Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America (CARLA) is a project exploring how art practice can challenge racism.  It is a collaboration between researchers from the University of Manchester, academic partners in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, and artists in these three countries.  The project has resulted in a tri-lingual online exhibition curated by CARLA researchers featuring 21 artists and collectives and over 30 artworks.

In April 2022, researchers in Manchester in the project Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America (CARLA) organised a Festival of Latin American Anti-Racist and Decolonial Art at the Contact Theatre.  

The event showcased the work of Latin American artists with whom the project has been collaborating since January 2020. The artists are creators of colour at the forefront of antiracist struggles in their countries, such as the Afro-Colombian dance company Sankofa Danzafro, the Brazilian Indigenous artist Gustavo Caboco, and the Argentinian Indigenous hip-hop duo, Eskina Qom.

The Festival also launched an ambitious online exhibition showcasing how artists challenge the racial inequality and exclusion in their countries. In Brazil, the focus is on Indigenous artists, in Colombia we have worked with Black and mestizo artists, while in Argentina, collaborations have been with Black and Mapuche artists and with an art collective that affirms an innovative “Marrón” identity for the dark-skinned descendants of Indigenous ancestry who form the bulk of the urban working classes in that country. The exhibition includes poetry, paintings, photographs, performance art, videos, animations and dance, with multiple contributions from over twenty artists.

Later in the year, a series of events were organised in Latin America to promote CARLA’s online exhibition and showcase the work of our artistic partners. For example, the book Marrones Escriben, produced by the collective Identidad Marrón with support from CARLA, was launched in Buenos Aires (and in Germany and Spain). The book contains didactic and artistic material about racial exclusion in Argentina.

In Brazil, an exhibition was held in November at the Federal University of Bahia’s Museum of Sacred Art. This was part of a programme of events, supported by CARLA, focusing on anti-racism and Indigenous art, which included seminars, performances, screenings and mural painting.

In Colombia, a day-long event focusing on the intersection of anti-racism and feminism brought academics and a dozen Colombian artists together at the School for Gender Studies of the National University of Colombia, culminating in a live musical performance by an all-female band, Las Emperadoras de la Champeta.

• A documentary on the Festival will be launched in the University on 8 March 2023.

 For further information please see:

• The Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America website
• The Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America blog
• The digital exhibition