Artivismo sapatão amazônida na cultura digital como dispositivo de afeto

Abstract

The research investigates the lesbofeminist artivism of amazonian collectives from the state of Pará, which I term sapativistas, focusing on the visual expressions, digitally available, that constitute an "artified device of sapatão1 affection." The concept of device is grounded in Michel Foucault (1979) and directed towards the intersections of gender, race, and class, as explored particularly by bell hooks (1995; 2019) and Sueli Carneiro (2005; 2019). It is understood as a cultural practice that articulates affection, identity, and LBTQ+ resistance in the context of digital culture. The research seeks to understand how the visual and poetic productions of collectives such as Sapato Preto Amazônida and Rede ALAMP, on Instagram and in physical spaces, express and construct an imaginary of resistance and affect, highlighting symbols and narratives of belonging. The identification of these images as forms of art is based on concepts of artivism, drawing from Lucy Lippard (2024), and on the hypothesis of artification, primarily introduced by Ellen Dissanayake (2009). The analysis methodology combines feminist approaches with sapatão and queer epistemologies, drawing from authors such as Adrienne Rich (2012), Audre Lorde (2019), Glória Anzaldúa (2000; 2005), Ann Cvetkovich (2021), and Sara Ahmed (2006; 2010). These perspectives help to understand dissident poetic production through the lens of lesbian existence and continuum, unveiling the aesthetic and affective codes present in the images and collective actions, as well as the impact of these productions in expanding lesbian visibility and fostering public policies. Among the findings, the research identifies contemporary lesbofeminist artivism in the Amazon region, which operates on digital social networks and appropriates these spaces to create existence and, above all, to expand, make visible, and resignify images while bringing people together in physical or non-physical spaces through encounters of political and cultural resistance. From the perspectives of activist poetics and artification, the sapativistas emerge not only as activist subjects and social protagonists across all analyzed groups but also as creative artivists who reframe images, turning them into powerful forms of affection and emotional impact. With this study, we aim to highlight historically dissident artistic expressions and contribute to the debate on the role of digital culture in the expansion and reconfiguration of lesbian and feminist discourses by Amazonian collectives. This is a challenging endeavor in the face of social media algorithms shaped by a concept of compulsory heteronormativity, while simultaneously promoting new forms of political articulation for the local sapphic community.