ABSTRACT
The project "Audiovisual production and vital strategies" interwove art, life, academic research, and activism with decolonial feminist perspectives. It was carried out as part of an audiovisual laboratory with students from the Federal State University of Rio de Janeiro and Casa Nem, a squatters' settlement, cultural and educational project in Rio de Janeiro led by transgender people in situations of high social vulnerability. The audiovisual Lab was facilitated by a group of artists and educators, and the majority of project participants were Black people who identified as trans* or LGBTQIA+. We worked with critical and emancipatory pedagogies that allowed the impacts of each participants racialized and gendered life experiences to guide the entire creative processes. The project's creative processes were inspired by bodywork dynamics from the field of performance art, and focused on uncovering profound dialogues and depths in each participant's life narratives. In this essay, we reflect critically on aesthetic choices and modes of creation. Through our discussion of the images and processes as a whole, we discuss how reimagining the encounter between pedagogy and audiovisual production established new modes of mediating relationships inside and outside of the university, and connect these processes to broader questions of health promotion.