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First 'Intergalactic' Resistance Studies Conference

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

June 18-21, 2026 

Mobile commons: resisting through art, rethinking politics, resetting democracy

Javier Toscano
Year of publication: 2023
DOI: 10.63961/2025.192

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Abstract

This article inquires about the resistance tactics enabled through artistic or aesthetic devices made possible by the ‘mobile commons’, that is, the resources produced by people on the move (mostly irregular migrants and refugees, or border-crossers). For that aim, the first part of the text presents and discusses the notion of the ‘commons’ and concentrates on examining the subset of the ‘mobile commons’. In a second step, the article examines a set of artistic devices based on complex mechanisms that mobilize images and self-styled documentary forms that perform over networked, organizational actions put forth by border-crossers. By analyzing how these materials function discursively and practically, how they interact and are interpreted, and especially how they construct sites of resistance, the research inquires into the limits and possibilities of artistic means to enable a sense of political performance, as well as into the theoretical challenges these set upon Western theories of democracy and political engagement.

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