Reshaping the Global South

Applications open: November 7, 2026
Deadline: December 20, 2026, at 11:59 PM
Submission languages: English and Spanish
Publication: Bilingual (English–Spanish)

Contributor Payment: Selected contributors will receive a one-time honorarium of USD $50. There is no fee to apply or participate.

Click to apply here

About the Open Call

INES_Magazina, in collaboration with AICA Cuba and AICA Paraguay, invites writers, art critics, artists, researchers, curators, and cultural practitioners worldwide to submit proposals for Reshaping the Global South: Editorial Practices from Latin America and the Caribbean, a special bilingual issue of INES_Magazina supported by AICA International.

Taking the Global South as its critical point of departure, it questions how art is interpreted, documented, circulated, and legitimized, whose perspectives are recognized, and whose histories and cultural practices remain marginalized. This inquiry also calls upon the Global North to critically examine its own assumptions, frameworks of interpretation, institutional authority, and relationships with the rest of the world.

Rooted in the editorial perspective of INES_Magazina, the project challenges patriarchal, heteronormative, colonial, and Eurocentric frameworks, extending art criticism beyond conventional aesthetic evaluation. It engages with the intersections of race, gender, class, and coloniality, the knowledge produced through marginalized bodies and experiences, and the relationship between everyday practices of resistance and broader social structures.

The special issue will bring together approximately 25 contributions, fostering situated, feminist, queer, intersectional, decolonial, and experimental approaches to art criticism and cultural writing.

Thematic Directions

• Reexamining the Global North: Critical self-examination of the Global North’s cultural assumptions, systems of knowledge, institutions, and traditions of interpretation. How have its structures of power, privilege, and exclusion shaped its understanding of art and culture, including within its own societies?

• Global North–South Relations and Contradictions: Investigations of colonial legacies, cultural appropriation, extraction, exchange, and collaboration, examining unequal power relations, the authority to represent others, and the internal hierarchies and contradictions within both contexts.

• Gender, Race, Class, and Cultural Representation: Feminist, queer, intersectional, and decolonial approaches that question patriarchal, heteronormative, racialized, and Eurocentric frameworks, particularly regarding whose bodies, experiences, and cultural practices are recognized, represented, or excluded.

• Rethinking Art Histories and Cultural Knowledge: Reconsiderations of established canons, aesthetic categories, and critical methodologies, bringing attention to marginalized artists, non-hegemonic practices, alternative archives, and histories and forms of knowledge that have been overlooked or erased.

• Bodies, Everyday Life, and Practices of Resistance: Artistic and cultural practices emerging from embodied experiences, personal and collective memory, and everyday resistance, examining how intimate and private experiences intersect with political, economic, and social structures.

• Language, Authorship, and Editorial Politics: Questions of translation, linguistic hierarchies, authorship, and the material, economic, and political conditions shaping independent criticism, publishing, and the production and circulation of cultural knowledge.

• Transforming Art Criticism and Cultural Practices: Experimental, speculative, autobiographical, visual, collective, and transdisciplinary approaches that challenge conventional forms of criticism, curating, publishing, and cultural interpretation.

These themes are points of departure rather than restrictive categories. Proposals exploring other questions consistent with INES_Magazina’s editorial perspective and the project’s critical objectives are equally welcome.

Accepted Formats

We invite proposals in the following formats:

1. Articles and Critical Reviews

Critical examinations of artistic practices, exhibitions, performances, cultural processes, or theoretical questions.

• 1,200–2,500 words.
• 5–7 images.
• APA or MLA citations when referencing external sources.

2. Autoessays / Innermost Essays

Personal, situated, embodied, or autobiographical writing connecting lived experience with broader artistic, cultural, historical, or political questions.

• Length and structure will be determined according to each proposal. (2,000 –  2,500 words)
• Hybrid and experimental approaches are welcome.

3. Visual Essays

Projects in which images and writing function as interconnected forms of critical inquiry.

• 700 words.
• At least seven images.
• Editorial development adapted to the proposal’s visual and conceptual structure.

4. Fake News / Speculative Criticism

Creative and critical exercises imagining alternative cultural realities, unrealized histories, or institutional transformations, such as retrospectives of overlooked artists, alternative museum collections, or rewritten art histories.

• 1,000–1,500 words.
• 3–5 images.
• Fictional and speculative elements must be clearly distinguishable from factual information.

5. Interviews

Critical conversations with artists, researchers, curators, or cultural practitioners whose work engages with the concerns of the special issue.

• Flexible structure.
• 1,500 –  2,500 words
• Editorial requirements developed in relation to each proposal.

Proposals combining these formats or introducing other experimental approaches are also welcome.

Citations and References

Articles and academic essays should follow APA or MLA citation styles.

For autoessays, visual essays, Fake News, interviews, and experimental formats, contributors may use the INES_Magazina Citation Guidelines, acknowledging sources through direct attribution, numbered footnotes, or a simple reference list.

References must provide sufficient information to identify the author, title, publication or source, date, and link when available. Images and archival materials require appropriate credits.

Personal reflections and original creative content do not require citations. Fictional references in speculative formats must be clearly identifiable as such.

The editorial team will assist contributors in adapting references to the publication’s guidelines.

How to Apply

Click to apply here

Applicants should submit a proposal, not a completed manuscript.

Each application must include:

• Provisional title of the proposed contribution.
• Abstract (400 words) outlining the subject, central argument, critical approach, and relevance to the special issue.
• Proposed format and thematic focus, selected from the categories above or identified as an alternative approach.
• Short biography (maximum 100 words).
• Contact information and country of residence.
• Optional supporting materials, including up to three images, visual references, or relevant links, particularly for visual and experimental proposals.

Applications may be submitted in English or Spanish. 

Calendar

• November 7, 2026 — Open call opens
• December 20, 2026 — Submission deadline
• January 16, 2027 — Announcement of selected contributors
• March 1, 2027 — Deadline for complete manuscripts, images, and references
• April 19, 2027 — Online publication begins (three contributions per week)
• June 3–5, 2027 — International Online Symposium (mandatory participation)
• June 25, 2027 — Completion of the special issue’s publication

Selection and Editorial Process

Proposals will be evaluated according to:

• Critical relevance: Alignment with the project’s objectives and the editorial perspective of INES_Magazina.
• Conceptual clarity: A clearly articulated subject, argument, and critical approach.
• Originality: The contribution of perspectives, questions, or methodologies that expand existing critical discourse.
• Editorial feasibility: The potential to develop the proposal within the publication’s formats and production schedule.

Particular attention will be given to underrepresented voices, cultural practices, and perspectives that challenge dominant institutional and art-critical narratives.

Selected contributors will be invited to develop their full manuscripts through an editorial process coordinated by INES_Magazina, including revisions, editing, and translation as required.

Originality and Prior Publication

All contributions must be original, unpublished in whole or in part, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Honoraria, Rights, and Publication

The special issue will publish approximately 25 contributions.

Each selected and approved contribution will receive an honorarium of $50 USD.

Authors retain copyright over their work and grant the necessary permissions for editing, translation, publication, and dissemination, with appropriate attribution.

All selected contributions will be published in English and Spanish in a special digital issue of INES_Magazina, freely accessible to the public.

Editorial coordination, translation, graphic design, and digital publication will be managed by INES_Magazina.

The special issue will be published progressively on INES_Magazina’s online platform over approximately nine weeks, with three contributions released each week. All 25 selected texts will form part of a single bilingual (English–Spanish) special issue, rather than being published simultaneously.

Online Symposium – Mandatory Participation – Public Program

The special issue will be accompanied by an international online symposium, Reshaping the Global South: Editorial Practices.

Participation is a condition of publication. All contributors whose proposals are selected must participate in the symposium and present their work.

The symposium is planned as a three-day online event featuring six thematic panels. Each contributor will deliver a 10-minute presentation, followed by moderated discussion and audience questions.

Presentations may be delivered in English or Spanish and may include visual or audiovisual materials.

The symposium will be held entirely online and will be open to the public.

The symposium will take place on June 3–5, 2027. The final program will be announced in advance.

Click to apply here

About the Project Partners

INES_Magazina is an independent, self-managed, multilingual platform for art criticism based in New York City. Founded by Yohanna M. Roa, it fosters feminist, queer, intersectional, decolonial, and transdisciplinary approaches that challenge dominant structures of cultural production, interpretation, and representation.

AICA Cuba (Samuel Hernández Dominicis) and AICA Paraguay (Gloria Velilla Mula), national sections of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), coordinate Reshaping the Global South in collaboration with INES_Magazina.

The project is supported by AICA International through its Open Call for Projects 2026 and FUNHI – Colombia

INES_Magazina
https://inesmagazina.com