Dissemination

CIAC co-organises the 4th International Counter-Image Conference at the University of Algarve

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The University of Algarve will host the 4th International Counter-Image Conference on 18, 19 and 20 November 2026, under the theme “How to speak with(in) the earth? Situated knowledges, unnaming methods, and visions from the threshold”. Co-organised by CIAC and Communication and ICNOVA – NOVA Institute of Communication at NOVA FCSH, the event will take place at the Penha Campus, using Auditorium 1.5 and the Atrium, with additional activities at GAMA RAMA Gallery in Faro.

The conference brings together researchers, artists, filmmakers, performers, curators and activists to reflect on the relationships between images, territory, memory and ecology. Over three days, the programme combines keynote lectures, panel discussions, performances, workshops, an artists’ talk and a cinema session.

Thinking and creating with the Earth

Taking the question “How to speak with(in) the earth?” as its starting point, this edition invites reflection on ways of producing knowledge and representing territories in the context of the ecological crisis. The event seeks to explore other relationships with the Earth, considering forms of knowledge that emerge from specific places, bodies and experiences.

The programme brings together visual culture, artistic practices, memory studies and environmental humanities, examining the relationship between ways of seeing and structures of power. Topics include extractivism, colonial legacies, relationships between species, and the possibilities for developing practices of care, belonging and reparation.

Opening and closing keynote lectures

The opening keynote will take place on 18 November, from 9:30 to 11:00, with Gabriela Milone and Franca Maccioni, from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. Entitled “The Earth and Language, Materialist inquiries between geo-logy and geo-graphy: a question of method”, the session will be chaired by Salomé Lopes Coelho, from ICON – Utrecht University.

The closing keynote will take place on 20 November, from 17:00 to 18:00, with Felipe Milanez, from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. His lecture, “Forest Pedagogies: ontological disorder and collective resilience on the Anthropocene frontiers”, will be chaired by Inês Beleza Barreiros, from ICNOVA – NOVA FCSH.

Both sessions will offer English translation.

Eleven discussion panels and contributions from CIAC researchers

The academic programme comprises eleven thematic panels, addressing topics such as situated futures, ecological and sonic epistemologies, photography and landscape, extractive territories, multispecies migrations, decolonising the gaze, and the Earth as archive.

CIAC’s participation includes Sílvia Leiria Viegas, who will present, alongside Jan Babnik, from Institute IRRIS in Ljubljana, the paper “Lisbon, in a Manner of Speaking: urban semiotics, deliberation, and pluriversal visual environments”. Their contribution forms part of the panel Counter-images: other grammars of the visible, on 19 November.

On 20 November, Natalia Rojcovscaia-Tumaha, affiliated with CIAC – University of Algarve and WAAS, will participate in the panel Sonic epistemologies: listening, matter and worlds in transition. On the same day, Ana Carvalho, from CIAC – University of Maia/Earthsea, will present “Ecologias da Remoção” in the panel Decolonising the gaze: cartographies, borders and territories.

Sílvia Leiria Viegas also serves on the organising committee, while Bruno Mendes da Silva and Mirian Nogueira Tavares are members of the scientific committee.

Workshops, performances and an artists’ talk

The programme includes five free workshops, dedicated to artistic experimentation and relationships with the body, plants, water and soil.

On 18 November, the workshops will be “Desnomear o Corpo, Ativar o Rito: meditação e processo criativo como prática de relação com(o) a Terra”, led by Lina de Albuquerque, and “In Our Hands an Alphabet: performing with languages of chalk”, led by H. C. Krempels.

On 19 November, the programme features “Writing (with) Plants: multispecies care as art practice”, with Heide Maria Baden, Vitalija Povilaityte-Petr and Konkankoh Joshua Ngwa, at Jardim Luís Bivar, and “Shiftings: an embodied practice with waterbodies”, with Luiz Ribeiro Fonseca and Chiara Muzzi, at Ria Formosa.

On 20 November, Gwendolyn Dora Cohen will lead the “Soil Stories Workshop” at the Penha Campus.

Participation in all five workshops is free, but registration is required via counterimageconference@fcsh.unl.pt, subject to availability.

The programme also includes performances by Ritó Natálio, Sílvia das Fadas, Nina Eick and Sérgio Olivé.

At GAMA RAMA Gallery, an artists’ talk will bring together Alexandra do Carmo, Romy Castro and Sílvia Pinto Coelho, chaired by the latter, combining reflections on an Alentejo quarry, art as a laboratory of thought, and the practice of de-choreographing.

Throughout the conference, Pedro Castanheira will develop the participatory project “Dicionário Vivo – Pensar com a Luz: exercícios para habitar o umbral”, presenting its results on the final day.

Cinema and activities across the Algarve

On 19 November, at 21:00, Cineclube de Faro will host the session “For Palestine”, featuring screenings of A Night We Held Between (2024), by Noor Abed, and Foragers (2022), by Jumana Manna. The session will be chaired by Maria do Carmo Piçarra and Salomé Lopes Coelho.

The programme also includes activities before and after the three conference days: a visit to the dryland landscape at Companhia das Culturas, in Castro Marim, on 17 November, and a visit to Lagos, focusing on Vale da Gafaria, on 21 November. Participation arrangements for these activities can be found in the official programme.

Information and participation

The conference, the events at GAMA RAMA Gallery and the cinema session at Cineclube de Faro are free. The workshops are also free, with mandatory registration and limited places.

The full programme, presentation abstracts and further information are available on the official website of the 4th International Counter-Image Conference.

Dates: 18, 19 and 20 November 2026
Venues: Auditorium 1.5 and the Atrium, Penha Campus – University of Algarve; GAMA RAMA Gallery, Rua do Prior, 46, Faro; other venues specified in the programme
Contact: counterimageconference@fcsh.unl.pt

Reminder: please bring your mobile phone and headphones to access simultaneous interpretation during the keynote sessions.

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This work is funded by national funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the projects UID/5021/2025, UID/04019/2025, and UID/04209/2025.