Dissemination
4th International Counter-Image Conference to take place in November at the University of Algarve, with call for papers open until 25 May
The University of Algarve will host the 4th International Counter-Image Conference from 18 to 20 November 2026. Under the theme “How to Speak With/As the Earth? Situated Knowledges, Methods for Unnaming, and Threshold Visions”, the event is jointly organised by NOVA University Lisbon and CIAC – the Research Centre for Arts and Communication at the University of Algarve. The conference will bring together researchers, artists, activists, and essayists for an interdisciplinary discussion on ecology, representation, coloniality, and forms of knowledge.
Responding to the urgent need to rethink relationships between humanity, territory, and the planet in a time of ecological crisis, the conference invites critical reflection on modes of knowledge and representation that move beyond anthropocentric, extractivist, and colonial paradigms. Rather than speaking “about” the Earth, Counter-Image challenges participants to think and create “with” the Earth, exploring it as an ontological, epistemological, and aesthetic condition.
The call for submissions is open until 25 May 2026. Applicants will be notified of the selection results by 30 June, and the conference will take place from 18 to 20 November in Faro, Portugal. Proposals may be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, or English, and should include an abstract or descriptive statement of up to 300 words, accompanied by a short biographical note of up to 100 words. Submissions should be sent to counterimageconference@fcsh.unl.pt.
Proposals are invited in three formats: academic papers, artistic interventions — including performances and poetry readings — and participatory formats such as discussion circles, workshops, listening walks, and affective cartographies.
The conference is structured around three main thematic strands: Situated Knowledges, focusing on relational, decolonial, and multispecies epistemologies; Unnaming Methods, dedicated to methodological experimentation, geo-aesthetics, and artistic practices that challenge colonial taxonomies; and Visions from the Threshold, which explores ways of thinking and creating across worlds, temporalities, and species.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Gabriela Milone and Franca Maccioni, from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, and Felipe Milanez, from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Their work has made significant contributions to contemporary debates on decolonial ecologies, cosmopolitics, and the relationships between art, territory, and politics.
The scientific and executive organisation brings together scholars from several national and international institutions. Representing CIAC, the conference organisation includes researcher Sílvia Leiria Viegas, alongside Inês Beleza Barreiros, Liliana Coutinho, Maria do Carmo Piçarra, Salomé Lopes Coelho, Teresa Castro, and Teresa Mendes Flores.
The 4th Counter-Image Conference thus positions itself as a space for encounter and critical experimentation, fostering new ways of thinking, sensing, and representing the Earth through situated, plural, and transformative perspectives.
This event is funded by national funds through Foundation for Science and Technology under the following Projects: ICNOVA UID/5021/2025 (DOI:10.54499/UID/05021/2025), CIAC UID/04019/2025 (DOI:10.54499/UID/04019/2025) e UID/PRR/04019/2025 (DOI:10.54499/UID/PRR/04019/2025), IHC UID/04209/2025 (DOI: 10.54499/UID/04209/2025) and LA/P/0132/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0132/2020).
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)