Papers by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
DIFFRACTIONS - No 4 (2021): Archives, Migration, and Gender, Oct 29, 2021
In the 1960-1970s, approximately 900,000 Portuguese people migrated to France, fleeing poverty, c... more In the 1960-1970s, approximately 900,000 Portuguese people migrated to France, fleeing poverty, colonial war, and dictatorship. Many were clandestine and had to illegally cross the borders between Portugal and Spain, and then between Spain and France, in a voyage known as the salto – the leap.
Stories of the salto are present in family circles of remembrance, as memories of migration are transferred to the second and third generations. In a context of postmemory, many descendants of the first generation of migrants inherit these stories imbued with trauma and are currently striving to give them visibility and recognition on a national level in Portugal. This task seeks to forge a collective memory by retrieving personal accounts and can be accomplished through cultural and aesthetic practices such as filmmaking. I consider the latter alternative archives that provide affective, intimate, and affiliative readings of the past countering national and official narratives. To illustrate this process, I analyze José Vieira’s documentary DVD film collection and booklet, People from the Salto.
SAUC - Street Art & Urban Creativity Journal , 2020
In this article, the question ‘Why Can't Banksy Be a Woman’ is a point of departure to approach s... more In this article, the question ‘Why Can't Banksy Be a Woman’ is a point of departure to approach some of the pressing challenges regarding sex and gender in graffiti and street art studies, in order to contribute on the matter of the presence/absence of women graffiti and street artists in this epistemological field. To this aim, I summon feminist contributions on the invisibility of women in the established art world, namely from art historians Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock. I map important contributions on the question of women in graffiti, by referring to graffiti scholars Nancy MacDonald and Jessica Pábon-Cólon. As street art has been considered more gender inclusive in regards to conditions of production, I locate restrictions mainly in terms of reception. Finally, I suggest that the question of women in graffiti and street art studies is larger than sex and gender.
SAUC - Street Art & Urban Creativity Journal , 2017
This article addresses some of the challenges faced by heritagization related to graffiti and str... more This article addresses some of the challenges faced by heritagization related to graffiti and street art, namely the changes in context and temporality that this process entails. In order to discuss these issues, I will frame the Berlin Wall as a paradigmatic case that presents a trajectory in time: I will follow the transition of the Wall from a deadly frontier to an obsolete structure and, finally, to a historic monument. I will argue that graffiti and street art are context-specific, and deeply affected by the symbolism and/or functions of the surface on which they are inscribed. Moreover, I will recognize graffiti and street art as practices situated in between tangible and intangible heritage. Particularly with the Berlin Wall, and in regard to the preservation of memory and heritage, I will suggest that graffiti and street art do not always enter the institutional circuit, especially when illegal and anonymous.
Book Chapters by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Negotiations of Migration: Reexamining the Past and Present in Contemporary Europe, 2021
The chapter focuses on the performative protest of a hunger strike and lip sewing by refugees tha... more The chapter focuses on the performative protest of a hunger strike and lip sewing by refugees that took place in a refugee camp known as "The Calais Jungle", the liminal space and "no man's land" between France and Great Britain.
Reading the protest as a strategy for reclaiming and performing agency in a state of extreme dispossession, the chapter stresses "The Jungle" as a site of contestation in face of the pejorative discourses aimed at diminishing the humanity of the refugees.
It reflects on the possibility of representing the refugee body without objectifying on or adding to the violence already suffered, namely by discussing the comics journalism "News from The Jungle" by Yasmine Bouagga and Lisa Mandel in Le Monde.
Talks by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Archiving Performance aims to explore, on one hand, the modes by which performances archive and a... more Archiving Performance aims to explore, on one hand, the modes by which performances archive and are archived and, on the other hand, the modes by which archives perform and are performed. The first of these twofold directions, then, encompasses questions regarding how performancesparticularly, artistic works that fit into the description of 'performance'are recorded/documented/archived, but also how performance can potentially operate as archival (counter)apparatus. The second direction brings us to a reflection on the possibilities and limits of the archive-the whats, the hows, the whens and the wheres of the archive-as well as the ways by which archives can be revised, revolved, reactivated , re-(ad)dressed, reassembled , re-articulated. Bringing together different perspectives, both of practical and theoretical inclinations, Archiving Performance gathers several artists who will share the processes, methods, hypotheses and/or provisional responses and re-materializations that emerge(d) from their research and explorations.
Conference Presentations by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Thesis Chapters by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
This thesis discusses and disrupts normative standards of success within the public space, propos... more This thesis discusses and disrupts normative standards of success within the public space, proposing queer and feminist readings on practices of intervening in urban surfaces, namely graffiti and street art. Within the context of reclaiming public space, graffiti and street art integrate, together with other performative actions, a ‘constellation of resistance’ (Lennon, 2014). These self-authorized, visual, and performative interventions in the public space raise issues of ephemerality, anonymity, vulnerability, and systems of value, thereby calling into question the ubiquitous neoliberal view on urban space. As capitalist and masculinist ideals dictate standards of success, unattainable for many, (queer) failure can be considered as a twofold resistance: as the refusal and critique of the dominant structure; and as the imagination of alternatives to be and to interact in the world.
In this context, feminist and queer points of view have the potential to foster an alternative reading of the city, in which graffiti and street art represent a useful contribution in the urban landscape. However, it is not surprising to find gender inequalities related to urban expressions, such as graffiti and street art, in which women struggle to be recognized. If issues of mobility, exposure, visibility, and risk in the city are gendered, what are the implications, not only for reclaiming the public space, but also for its transgression?
In order to tackle the paradoxical nature of graffiti and street art as both politically fertile and discriminatory against women, this research project analyses the ways graffiti, street art and similar expressions engage with issues relating to women in ways that are politically relevant. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that brings together visual culture, literary theory, urban and memory studies, this thesis discusses the political potential and limitations for women in the graffiti and street art worlds, from production to reception.
Awarded "Best Thesis" - Prémio Internacional em Estudos Culturais Virgínia Quaresma (2022)
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Papers by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Stories of the salto are present in family circles of remembrance, as memories of migration are transferred to the second and third generations. In a context of postmemory, many descendants of the first generation of migrants inherit these stories imbued with trauma and are currently striving to give them visibility and recognition on a national level in Portugal. This task seeks to forge a collective memory by retrieving personal accounts and can be accomplished through cultural and aesthetic practices such as filmmaking. I consider the latter alternative archives that provide affective, intimate, and affiliative readings of the past countering national and official narratives. To illustrate this process, I analyze José Vieira’s documentary DVD film collection and booklet, People from the Salto.
Book Chapters by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Reading the protest as a strategy for reclaiming and performing agency in a state of extreme dispossession, the chapter stresses "The Jungle" as a site of contestation in face of the pejorative discourses aimed at diminishing the humanity of the refugees.
It reflects on the possibility of representing the refugee body without objectifying on or adding to the violence already suffered, namely by discussing the comics journalism "News from The Jungle" by Yasmine Bouagga and Lisa Mandel in Le Monde.
Talks by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Conference Presentations by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
Thesis Chapters by Sofia (Sophie) Pinto
In this context, feminist and queer points of view have the potential to foster an alternative reading of the city, in which graffiti and street art represent a useful contribution in the urban landscape. However, it is not surprising to find gender inequalities related to urban expressions, such as graffiti and street art, in which women struggle to be recognized. If issues of mobility, exposure, visibility, and risk in the city are gendered, what are the implications, not only for reclaiming the public space, but also for its transgression?
In order to tackle the paradoxical nature of graffiti and street art as both politically fertile and discriminatory against women, this research project analyses the ways graffiti, street art and similar expressions engage with issues relating to women in ways that are politically relevant. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that brings together visual culture, literary theory, urban and memory studies, this thesis discusses the political potential and limitations for women in the graffiti and street art worlds, from production to reception.
Awarded "Best Thesis" - Prémio Internacional em Estudos Culturais Virgínia Quaresma (2022)
Stories of the salto are present in family circles of remembrance, as memories of migration are transferred to the second and third generations. In a context of postmemory, many descendants of the first generation of migrants inherit these stories imbued with trauma and are currently striving to give them visibility and recognition on a national level in Portugal. This task seeks to forge a collective memory by retrieving personal accounts and can be accomplished through cultural and aesthetic practices such as filmmaking. I consider the latter alternative archives that provide affective, intimate, and affiliative readings of the past countering national and official narratives. To illustrate this process, I analyze José Vieira’s documentary DVD film collection and booklet, People from the Salto.
Reading the protest as a strategy for reclaiming and performing agency in a state of extreme dispossession, the chapter stresses "The Jungle" as a site of contestation in face of the pejorative discourses aimed at diminishing the humanity of the refugees.
It reflects on the possibility of representing the refugee body without objectifying on or adding to the violence already suffered, namely by discussing the comics journalism "News from The Jungle" by Yasmine Bouagga and Lisa Mandel in Le Monde.
In this context, feminist and queer points of view have the potential to foster an alternative reading of the city, in which graffiti and street art represent a useful contribution in the urban landscape. However, it is not surprising to find gender inequalities related to urban expressions, such as graffiti and street art, in which women struggle to be recognized. If issues of mobility, exposure, visibility, and risk in the city are gendered, what are the implications, not only for reclaiming the public space, but also for its transgression?
In order to tackle the paradoxical nature of graffiti and street art as both politically fertile and discriminatory against women, this research project analyses the ways graffiti, street art and similar expressions engage with issues relating to women in ways that are politically relevant. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that brings together visual culture, literary theory, urban and memory studies, this thesis discusses the political potential and limitations for women in the graffiti and street art worlds, from production to reception.
Awarded "Best Thesis" - Prémio Internacional em Estudos Culturais Virgínia Quaresma (2022)