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In 2021, the“Journey for Life” took place in Europe, a Zapatista initiative aimed at meeting grassroots collectives engaged in the struggle against the market’s ecocidal logic. Hundreds of activist groups organized to welcome them and engage with them through activities that were both festive and political, supported by an intense effort in visual production (photographs, paintings, videos).
In Chiapas, after more than thirty years of welcoming thousands of people from Europe and elsewhere to learn from this territory rich in atypical struggles and practices of sharing, it was the turn of European activists to respond, politically and culturally, to the Zapatistas’ call for dialogue and shared knowledge.

This exhibition explores the visual culture born ofthe Journey for Life, situating it within a long-term temporal framework that creates a dialogue between 2021 and 1492, the date of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. The journey is not only conceived as a contemporary reversal of the crossing, but also as a collective process of building the common good and a political, aesthetic, and symbolic laboratory.

Through objects, images, archives, recordings, and works of art, the exhibition explores the role of visual practices in the construction of shared imaginaries, the transnational circulation of struggles, and the redefinition of the relationships between art, activism, and life. Far from being mere documents, these productions are approached as active forms of thought, carrying emotions, memories, and political projections.

The images and objects brought together in this exhibition do not merely bear witness to an event: they fully participate in the development of new narratives of solidarity, internationalism, and the defense of life. In this sense, the Journey for Life is conceived as a visual, performative, and political event in its own right, where images do not merely illustrate struggles but produce, accompany, and transform them.

Exhibition organized by the research group “NOVA-IMAGO-ZAP: Political Images and New Worlds to Build: The Visual Culture of the Zapatistas’ Journey for Life in Europe” at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Labex Structuration des Mondes Sociaux, with the support of the IUF (Institut Universitaire de France)
Featuring works by Alessandro Zagato, Amaylene, Andrea Valencia, Antonio Turok, Zapatista Base Communities, Daniela Campos, David Dijard, Fernando S., Isaac Guzman, José Ángel Rodríguez, Lina Cabrera Cubillos, Lorena Tabares, Maelok Guevara, Omar Pinto, Robert Bonet, Tlaloc, and V. Hugo.
We would like to express our immense gratitude to our partners, colleagues, and artists who provided invaluable support in bringing this exhibition to fruition: Amaylene, Natalia Arcos, Batsi-lab, Nathalie Boulouch, CEDOZ, Lina Cabrera Cubillos, David Dijard, Héloïse Deyder, Franck Gaudichaud, Maelok Guevara, Isaac Guzman, Elena Mejías, Lola Sepúlveda, Fernando S, Lorena Tabares, Omar Pinto, Emmanuelle Sapet, Antonio Turok, Andrea Valencia,

We would also like to extend our warmest thanks to Héloïse Faivre, Auréline Vivier-Bourdier, and the entire technical and reception staff for opening the doors of the Joseph Fourier Library Museum Space at the University of Grenoble Alpes to us
Image: Abel, Tres estrellas resiliencia, 2021.