In conjunction with the exhibition The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer by Asuncion Molinos Gordo, this two-day symposium brings together artists, scholars, and researchers to reflect on agrarian knowledge, cultural memory, and the role of rural communities in shaping their own futures. Through panels, lectures, and screenings, the programme looks at how the role and significance of farming communities, from the Middle East to North Africa, Spain and beyond, have changed over the past 15 years, a period shaped by major economic shifts, climate change and political upheavals.

The programme invites audiences to engage with urgent questions around how land is used, who works it, and what happens when these relationships are disrupted. It considers histories of farming, migration, and policy as they relate to rural life, while reflecting on our responsibility to recognise the agency, resilience and knowledge embedded in farming life.

The first day centers on rural life and farming knowledge, touching on themes of food justice, ecological repair, and the intellectual labour of farmers. The second day focuses on broader Mediterranean imaginaries, exploring the shared cultural practices, ruins, and ghosts that shape our ideas of tradition, migration, and ecological wisdom.

Speakers include Asunción Molinos Gordo, Habib Ayeb, Anahi Alviso-Marino Biso, Nezar Andary, Rafael SM Paniagua and Andrea Pacheco.

Further details, including the full schedule and list of participants, will be announced by September 10, 2025. 

About the Speakers:

Asunción Molinos Gordo is a research-based artist strongly influenced by anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. Her practice questions the definition of innovation in contemporary mainstream discourses, working to generate a less urban-centric way of understanding progress. She has produced work reflecting on land use, nomad architecture, farmer strikes, territorial bureaucracy, transformation of rural labour, biotechnology and global food trade.

Rafael SM Paniagua works, teaches, researches, and creates at the intersection of literature, aesthetics & philosophy, art and cultural studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics at UNED (Madrid, 2015) with a dissertation entitled A Minor Constellation (from Ruins to Utopia): Aesthetic and Political Potencies of Childhood. He studied in the Arts Faculty of Cuenca (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha), where he completed an MA in New Artistic and Cultural Practices in the Public Sphere (2008) with a thesis exploring the visual, medial and performative representations of suffering in contemporary political contexts.

Andrea Pacheco is a Chilean curator and independent researcher based in Madrid, whose work explores contemporary debates on memory, migration, diaspora, and transnational identities. She was curator of the Chilean Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024) with Cosmonación by Valeria Montti Colque. Her recent curatorial projects include Colonial Memory in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (2024), Latina. Women, Music and Glamour in the Gladys Palmera Collection (Casa de América, Madrid, 2025), and Heart Lungs Liver. Think with the guts (Matadero Madrid, 2019). Pacheco teaches curatorial studies at Nebrija University (Madrid) and directs the research platforms FelipaManuela and Instituto de la Tierra, while also editing and publishing books on art, memory, and cultural history.

Dr. Habib Ayeb is a geographer, professor, and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on water politics, food sovereignty, and agrarian movements in North Africa. He is the founder of the Tunis-based Observatory of Food Sovereignty and the Environment (OSAE) and has directed several acclaimed documentaries including Couscous: Seeds of Dignity and Fellahin. Ayeb’s work bridges academic and activist circles, with an emphasis on peasant agency and environmental justice.

Anahi Alviso-Marino Biso is a cultural historian and researcher whose work spans art, memory, and political imaginaries in the Arab world. Her current research examines how monuments and memorials dedicated to rural labourers reflect broader tensions around history and visibility. She has published extensively on cultural production in conflict and post-conflict zones and has curated regionally engaged programmes across the Middle East.

Nezar Andary is a scholar, filmmaker, and curator based in Abu Dhabi. He serves as an Associate Professor of Digital Production and Storytelling at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication at the American University in Dubai. He is also the Artistic Director of the Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival and leads the Performing Books Season at the House of Wisdom in Sharjah. Andary’s interdisciplinary work bridges film, literature, and cultural history, with a particular focus on Arab intellectual traditions and environmental storytelling.