CRISTINA MORALES

Counterspace | 2019 – Present, International. Counterspace is the first decolonial platform mapping cultural activism worldwide. It offers collectively shaped decolonial toolkits and a global directory of cultural activism browsable by continent, praxis, and social construct. Inspired by Beuys’s social sculpture, it links countercultural experiences with radical culture shakers creatively decolonising culture, to inspire collective change. Departing from creativity as the source that any human being has, and via these unlearning and relearning toolkits, Counterspace aims to co-create new collective knowledge production pools in circulation addressed to individuals, collectives, and institutions while self-organising, exploring horizontal relationships, unlearning and relearning personal and community development, with a decolonial and hence intersectional, decentralised, and holistic approach.

Founding Curator / Producer | Researcher. Curator. Editor. Decolonial Labs Facilitator. Communication. Funding. Key achievements: Founding the first global decolonial platform mapping social practice art and cultural activism, launching and facilitating the first community-led international Decolonial Lab, and organising a global network that bridges neocolonial and hierarchical divides in a fragmented identity politics landscape. Awarded an artist fellowship at the Design Science Studio (2021-2022) to develop Counterspace as part of the Regenaissance Movement.

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Disability Arts Online | 2021- 2022, UK / International. Disability Arts Online is a UK-based non-profit with a unique global role championing ‘disability art’ from a differently-abled-led perspective rooted in the disability arts movement. The Onyx pilot project established a UK-wide, intersectional artist-led collective formed by Priya Mistry, Alexandrina Hemsley, Kuli Kohli, Ngozi Ugochukwu, Jacqui Adeniji-Williams, Ashokkumar Mistry, and Omikemi. The collective articulated its own leadership and was commissioned to create a debut publication, culminating in a launch event at Autograph ABP, London, supported by media such as Primary and gal-dem. The publication is stocked in galleries, radical bookshops, and cultural organisations across London and the UK. Onyx members also worked as freelance publication editors and artist mentors, delivering development webinars and one-to-one sessions. The collective produced and commissioned accessible artist presentations for a global audience.

Project Manager | Co-planned the project with artists and CEO. Coordinated and co-facilitated online and live collective meetings, handling communication between artists, core team, finance, marketing, and partners. Managed the completion, editing, design, and delivery of the publication within timeline and budget. Produced the launch event in collaboration with artists and DAO, ensuring schedule and budget adherence. Researched mentors and partnerships. Recruited external facilitators, editors, and mentors for artist development in liaison with the CEO. Provided artist support alongside DAO. Oversaw administration, financial monitoring, and evaluation reporting with the CEO. Key achievement: Fostering intersectional diversity in the disability arts sector by facilitating the foundation and launch of the UK’s first intersectional, artist-led collective in this niche.

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Haringey Arts | 2016 – London, UK. Haringey Arts was a community interest company developing the converted living/working warehouse district of Haringey in North London. It connected local creative talent through events, workshops, and collaborations, raising the profile of the area. Between 2008 and 2018, it engaged over 70,000 people, raised over £100,000 to commission collaborations between local artists, and created 35 new projects that helped artists reach broader audiences, contributing to the recognition of the area as a creative asset. Partnerships were established with local organisations such as Bernie Grant Arts Centre, West Creative, Clear Village, and Manor House Development Trust. The ‘Village Fund’ remains available to residents at Cara House, Catwalk Place, Overbury Road, and Arena, supporting projects that benefit neighbours, the neighbourhood, and community identity.

Co-curator | Co-curated commissioned artworks for warehouse-related projects. Managed social media for Tottenham Warehouse District, including website updates and newsletters. Co-curated art programmes for Haringey primary schools with Haringey Arts artists. Key achievements: Democratising art by creating alternative circuits. Developing a creative neighbourhood platform led by artists displaced by gentrification. Fostering contexts of care and intersectional spaces for community development.

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Black Cultural Archives | 2015 – London, UK. Black Cultural Archives is the first public institution collecting, preserving, and celebrating the history and culture of people of African and Afro-Caribbean descent in the UK. Still a nationally unique archive and heritage centre in Brixton, South London, it was founded in 1981 by historian and educator Len Garrison. Beyond the archive, BCA provides dedicated learning spaces alongside a programme of remarkable exhibitions and events.

Relationship & Development Assistant | Supported the relationship and development department in communication and digital marketing. Key achievement: Revealing hidden histories by working on social and political topics through art.

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Peckham Platform | 2015 – London, UK. Peckham Platform is a cultural organisation that brings artistic practice and community together to co-create meaningful social art addressing the needs and concerns of those involved. Grounded in its civic mission, PP is committed to co-commissioning, collaborative co-production, and alternative pedagogies, delivering public creative placemaking that fosters civic enquiry and tangible social impact. Its artistic programme aims to be relevant and useful to both artists and communities in Peckham, South London, tackling access inequality, promoting cultural democracy, amplifying marginalised voices, and highlighting overlooked narratives. Active since 2009, PP is a key reference in the UK social art scene.

Social Art Gallery & Learning Assistant | Supported exhibitions such as Twelve by Melanie Manchot, Cuming: a Natural Selection by Janetka Platun, and Doing Nothing is Not an Option: in Memory of Nigerian Writer and Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by Michael McMillan. Key achievement: Fostering participatory art in the disenfranchised and gentrified neighbourhood of Peckham, South London.

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Interarts | 2014 – Barcelona, Spain / International. Interarts is a private agency operating as a non-profit civil society organisation specialising in human development through culture since 1995. From its headquarters in Barcelona, it carries out international activities through an extensive network of partner organisations and professionals, with offices in Lima (Peru) and Pristina (Kosovo). Its areas of work include cultural cooperation, consultancy, knowledge transfer, applied research, networking, and advocacy.

Curator / Community Organiser | Curated Fomecc – Creative Industries Networking Platform spanning Spain, South America, and West Africa. Responsible for research, content curation, community building, and follow-up. Key achievement: Building tricontinental creative industries networks through community organising.

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Ribermusica Festival |  2007-2009 – Barcelona, Spain. Ribermusica is a private foundation with a longstanding commitment to social art, using music as a tool for community cohesion. Operating in La Ribera, one of Barcelona’s historic neighbourhoods, the organisation runs a range of community-based projects—among them, the Ribermusica Festival, which brings live music into unconventional public and commercial spaces.

Cultural Producer | Managed bookings and coordinated site-specific concert venues including shops, libraries, barbershops, parks, restaurants, and hotels for the festival’s 2007, 2008 and 2009 editions. Key achievements: Democratising art by creating alternative circuits and horizontal performances. Fostering contexts of care and intersectional spaces for community development.

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HostelArt | 2005-2013 – Barcelona, Spain / International. HostelArt was a groundbreaking platform that created space for arts and culture within the independent backpackers’ hostel niche—specifically within the Equity Point international chain (Barcelona, Madrid, London, New York, Marrakech, Girona, Prague). The project developed a non-profit cultural programme that connected Barcelona-based artists and audiences with hostel guests, offering free monthly events and international art residencies. Partner organisations included: Associació de Sales de Concerts de Catalunya, Tendencias TV, Urbe TV, Scanner FM, Lamono Magazine, El Periódico, Mondo Sonoro, Relevant Urban Music and Art Magazine, Backpackers Meeting Point, Two Market, Cruz Roja, Vida Urbana, Arte en Barcelona, Barcelona Turisme Creatiu, Hace Color, Kasba Music, Festival de Jazz i Música Creativa de Ciutat Vella, Hipnotik Festival, Brasilnoar Festival, Buskers Festival, Difusor, Djs Contra La Fam, Un Techo Por Chile, La Casa Amarilla, Fusic, Imagomundi Artes Plásticas, and Tap Barcelona, among others.

Founding Curator-Producer / Project Manager |  Led programming, organisation, administration, and communications for ninety-six art exhibitions, four hundred concerts, four hundred DJ sessions, four hundred film screenings, two fundraising festivals, a fashion catwalk, one hundred design markets, five live graffiti murals, five hostel decoration projects, and three international art residencies. Key achievements: Democratising art by creating alternative circuits and offering a platform for Barcelona’s multidisciplinary underground arts scene. Fostering contexts of care and intersectional spaces for community development. Inspiring other independent hostels to bring arts and culture to their spaces worldwide.

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Featured header image: Fluxus Manifesto by George Maciunas, 1963.

Languages through Music | 2024 – London. Languages through Music is an independent and accessible education platform founded by Desta Haile challenging conventional ways of learning language one song at a time. A link between language and music validated by thinkers such as Noam Chomsky.

Researcher | Researcher of Hispanic American and Caribbean music and cultures via cultural supplements feeding the platform’s content in relation to the cultures where Spanish is immersed in.                                                                                                          

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ABK University of Art and Design | 2022 – Stuttgart, Germany. The State Academy of Art and Design (ABK Stuttgart) is the University of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. The Master ‘Body, Theory and Poetics of The Performative‘ is the first of its kind in Germany and allow students to work on the politics of the body, theory and poetics of the performative as different but inseparable dimensions of the same praxis. An approach allowing to explore the possibilities and question the limits of social power formulating theoretical, technical and organisational aspects of their practice through collective forms of critical work. The Master is co-directed by Cristina Gómez Barrio and Wolfgang Mayer since 2018, co-founders of Discoteca Flaming Star which is an interdisciplinary and collaborative art group using performance as response to social and political events.

Guest Lecturer | Guest lecturer presenting career work linked to the Master Body, Theory and Poetics of the Performative programme with the lecture ‘Embodying Liberation: Trauma, Healing and Rites of Passage through Art & Culture. Organised by Cristina Gómez Barrio, Wolfgang Mayer, and Sabine Palm.

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Ephemera | 2021 – International. Ephemera is an independent peer-reviewed open access online journal about theory and politics in organising composed of academics from all over the world. Countering the now hegemonisation of social theory, it operates at the margins of organisation studies continuously seeking to question what organisation studies is and what it can become. The journal is supported by individual donors and academic institutions such as the University Library of Bern, Switzerland and the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

Guest Speaker | Guest speaker on Cultural Activism as Counterpower within the panel ‘Arts Activism’ in the online conference ‘Activist Organising and Organising Activism: A Post-Pandemic World in the Making‘ organised by Yousra Rahmouni Elidrissi, Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya and Christos Giotitsas.

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Decolonial Lab | 2020 – London, UK / International. The monthly Decolonial Lab online by Counterspace is the first non-hierarchical and international grassroots forum experience rooted in critical pedagogy holding space for decolonial theory, and most importantly, a collective exploration of the subject plus co-creation of a new paradigm as decolonial practice. That means that although the theoretical body is always similar, the community-led roundtable conversation is always different, which gives the lab as much continuity to deepen or broaden the holistic exploration as desired. As decolonial lab, is the first and only of its kind, where health and the expansion of both personal and community development is understood as a necessarily holistic and interdependent exercise on a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and natural level. The experience is then catalysed connecting disciplines which have otherwise been disconnected such as critical pedagogy, critical psychology, critical anthropology, radical politics, spirituality, and natural sciences, with the aim of healing while building the new instead of focusing on fighting the old, minding the whole picture. It is addressed to people from all walks of life and locations ready to build, through relational learning, new pools of alternative collective knowledge in circulation.

Founding Workshop Facilitator | Producer and hosting facilitator / critical educator of a monthly and international decolonial lab online for groups.

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Primary | 2020 – Nottingham, UK / International. Primary is a Nottingham-based contemporary arts organisation commissioning, producing and presenting art exploring ideas that affect societal change. A dynamic space for creative research, new work, and collaboration, expanding who is involved in making art and connecting local and global communities. They prioritise artistic research and participatory arts providing residencies and running a free public programme of learning and community events. Their approach to programme is to invest in artistic research and learning through participation and engagement delivering a platform for conversation and knowledge exchange which, by employing a cycle of theory, practice, and reflection, creates collaborative relationships between artists, audiences, and the wider society.

Hosting Workshop Facilitator | Hosting facilitator/critical educator of the online ‘Decolonial Lab for Cultural Activists‘ in the frame of Making Place exhibition and the monthly forum Social Practice Social,  curated by Rebecca Beinart.

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Social Art Network | 2020 – London & Brighton, UK / International. Social Art Network is a British platform of artists committed to building agency via art and social practice. Unapologetically political and unreservedly radical in approach and practice, SAN believes that the only creative response to our current climate is radical politics as art, understanding politics not as governmental parties but as the social collection of people, where true meaningful change is generated. In art, they state that this translates into emotional resonance with the state of our society and the crises that we collectively inhabit but it also translates into vision imagining new ways of living with one another, where creativity has always led the way in conceiving revolutionary routes. Created in 2017, SAN met early success launching the Social Art Summit in 2018, a national review of social practice leading to the artist-led national network, and expanding dialogue and a pilot for the world’s first Social Art Biennale.

Co-Host / Guest Speaker | Guest speaker on decolonial thought and co-host of the decentralised and practice-led online event on ‘Radical Imagination‘ along with social practice artists Sophie Hope, Fran Cottell, E-J Scott, R.M Sánchez-Camus, and Ignacio Acosta, curated by Sally Labern from Social Art Network in London.

Guest Speaker | Guest speaker in the online event ‘Decolonising Culture: Unlearning and Relearning through Creative Practice‘ along with artist Sofia Yala, curated and hosted by Susuana Amoah from Socially Engaged Salon (Brighton) and Social Art Network in Brighton.

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Featured header image: Oskar Hansen’s open form theory / pedagogy presented at AICA congress in Wroclaw, Poland,  1975.

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Featured header image: Dadalenin by Rainer Ganahl, 2003.

Design Science Studio | 2021 – 2022, San Francisco, USA. The Design Science Studio is an incubator by the Buckminster Fuller Institute in partnership with HabRitual, based in San Francisco, USA, launching The Regenaissance – a decade-long global movement that brings together revolutionary thinkers and creators to imagine, create, and inspire a world that works for 100% of life. With a cluster of visionary mentors and using Buckminster Fuller’s comprehensive anticipatory design science principles, selected cohorts of international creators across many disciplines further their education to keep building during a seven-month residency culture-shifting ideas and projects for a regenerative future.

Regenaissance Movement Artist (Cohort 2021-2022) | Key achievement: Awarded and artist fellowship to develop Counterspace and present it in a series of digital showcases and large scale campaigns to facilitate the transition to a future where all life thrives. Online and live events included Regenera Rising, Making the Invisible Visible, Dissolve and Bloom, and Miami Art Week.

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Mischief Makers Carnival Arts | 2016 – 2018, UK. Mischief Makers is an independent carnival initiative led by freelance carnival artist Emma Garofalo, specialised in large scale kinetic costumes / puppetry and performance for community development projects all over the United Kingdom.

Costume Assistant & Performer | ‘Metamorphosis’ costume assistant for Northampton Carnival (London, 2018).  ‘Metamorphosis’ costume assistant and performer for Brighton Pride (Brighton, 2018).  ‘Anima Mundi’ costume assistant for Luton International Carnival (London, 2017), and Extinction Rebellion (London, 2019). Workshop assistant for Kew Gardens (London, 2017). ‘Metamorphosis’ costume assistant and performer for Wandsworth Arts Fringe (London, 2017), Kew Gardens (London, 2017), and Camp Bestival (Dorset, 2016). Key achievements: Anima Mundi costume was winner of EMCCAN Carnival Queen first prize (2017), and leader of Extinction Rebellion’s parade in Hackney (London, 2019). Fostering human and nature rights themed participatory arts and the politics of public space.

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Mahogany Carnival Arts  | 2016 – London, UK. Mahogany is a famous carnival group of multidisciplinary artists based in London led by Clary Salandy and Michael Ramdeen from Trinidad and Tobago. After training with award-wining carnival artist Peter Minshall in their native island, they have been designing and creating large scale kinetic sculptures/carnival costumes using the human body in the art form of ‘Mas making’, masquerade, or street theatre, having been instrumental in introducing such art across the UK since 1989. They have been consistently winning the Notting Hill Carnival competition in their category for most of the last years. With award winning collaborations featured in the Caribbean, London, Paris, Nice, Sweden, United States, and Trinidad, they act as an agent using carnival as a catalyst for bringing together people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Costume Assistant & Performer | Costume assistant and performer for Lord Kitchener-inspired collection ‘London is The Place for Me‘  for the 50th Anniversary of Notting Hill Carnival. Key achievements: Mahogany was winner of the 50th Notting Hill Carnival‘s first prize in its category. A Mahogany costume was featured on page 29 of the British passport. Fostering human rights themed participatory arts and the politics of public space.

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Totem Taboo | 2012 – 2018, International. Totem Taboo was an artistic project designing avant-garde scenic artefacts and scenes, building new collective imaginaries through the visual narrative of the symbol. It was born somehow functioning as the first ‘brand’ in Spain designing militant fashion campaigns with non-professional models challenging mainstream notions of identity. Operating outside traditional seasons, bespoke and very small limited edition capsule collections were released punctually focusing on locally and ethically handcrafted one-of-a-kind pieces that transcended fast fashion ethos and trends. The garments evolved to be sculptural and activated only when worn as part of public interventions and performances dressing the contemporary free jazz scene. Either way, in Situationist International fashion, it always aimed to create situations disrupting ‘the spectacle’.

Founding Artist & Producer | Designer. Maker. Stylist. Art Director. Producer. Communication. Key achievements:  First ‘brand’ designing militant fashion campaigns in Spain since 2012, portrayed in Barcelona’s street art by SM172. Only Spanish ‘brand’ present in the emerging and so-called ‘contemporary ethnic’ art & design shows in Europe since 2012 such as Labo Ethnik (Paris, 2012), Ethno Tendance (Brussels, 2012), African Street Style (London, 2015 & 2016), and Afropunk (Paris, 2016), to mention a few. First ‘brand’ dressing the contemporary free jazz scene, with a Sun Ra-inspired collection and the likes of Zap Mama and Sun Ra Arkestra. Totem Taboo was stocked at Quai Branly Museum in Paris -the biggest museum of anthropology in Europe, and Soboye – the main African fashion hub in London. Since working just on scenic pieces, a unique piece of the first scenic collection ‘Space Age‘ was previewed at Africa Utopia Festival with a performance of Kendall Mugler alongside artwork by Manzel Bowman, presented by Baaba Maal, at Southbank Centre, in London, in 2016. Totem Taboo has later been part of the collective and nomadic scenic fashion exhibition ‘Parures’, organised by Paris-based conscious fashion organisation Universal Love, alongside many international avant-garde artists. Another unique piece was previewed at Klimafestivalen’s ‘Parures Frozen Catwalk’ exhibition, in collaboration with Fashion Revolution, in Oslo, Norway, in 2018.

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From 2011 to 2016, Cristina participated punctually in a series of public interventions and performances with various grassroots collectives and international social movements: Selva | 2015-2016 – London, UK. London-based collective of performers and activists doing performances and public interventions, led by Brazilian London-based carnival producer-artist Manuela Benini. Our Brixton | 2015 – London, UK. Multi-arts grassroots campaign that aimed to respond to Brixton’s gentrification via public interventions, led by spoken word activist Potent Whisper. Walking Gallery | 2012 – Barcelona, Spain. International social movement of artists bringing their art to the streets under the motto ‘no more walls’ in the form of a walking art gallery, founded by entrepreneur Jose Puig. Projecta Social Theatre Company | 2011-2013 – Barcelona, Spain. Social theatre company mostly doing public interventions, active during the Spanish Anti-austerity / Indignats Movement (15-M), the 15th October 2011 Global Protests, and beyond. Currently named Arde Teatro.

Public Intervention Artist – Performer | ‘Trans-form Carnival‘ fundraising performance by Selva at The Bussey Building – London, UK, 2016. ‘Movimientos‘ 10th anniversary performance by Selva at Rich Mix – London, UK, 2015. ‘Resistance Dance‘ public intervention in Tesco supermarket (former community music venue) by Our Brixton – London, UK, 2015. ‘Walking Art Gallery‘ public intervention by Walking Gallery – Barcelona, Spain, 2012. ‘Paint your Face‘ public intervention by Projecta Social Theatre Company as part of the Spanish Anti-austerity Movement (15-M) – Barcelona, Spain, 2011. ‘Anti-Xmas Musical’ public intervention by Projecta Social Theatre Company in Barcelona’s public transport – Barcelona, Spain, 2011. Key achievements: Disrupting everyday life using public interventionist art as critical public pedagogy amid Brixton’s gentrification and the Spanish Anti-austerity/Indignados social movement (aka 15-M). The 15-M Movement brought to Europe, during the 15th October 2011 Global Protests, the protest camp model first formed during the Arab Spring, adapting it into a more countercultural framework practising and aiming for direct democracy. It later expanded to the USA, influencing the creation of Occupy Wall Street and the broader Occupy Movement worldwide. Helping organise the first Trans-form Carnival in Ahmedabad, India, in 2016. Democratising art joining Walking Gallery, which evolved into an international social movement active across Europe and Latin America, featured in national and international media including Spanish TV2, TV3, BTV, Canal 33, and Canal+ France, among others. Fostering participatory art and the politics of public space.

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Featured header image: Astro Black by Totem Taboo. Photography by Damien Paillard. Model Christelle Duverly. Design, styling and art direction by Cristina Morales. Paris, 2017.