Hazlo con otrxs
Youth, Argentinian Fanzines, and Echoes of Resistance

Curated by

Nazareno Bravo
Researcher, CONICET, AR

María Victoria Seca
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

Zainabu Jallo
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

Details

Venue and accessibility info: Collegium Helveticum

Opening hours (until March 30, during festival Echoes of Authority):
• March 25: Opening event/reception, 19:30-21:30
• March 26: 10:00-21:30
• March 27: 10:00-22:00
Opening hours (after March 30): Mon-Fri, 12:30-16:30

For groups of 10 or more people, such as school classes:
Pre-register your visit with the Events Office
(Group visits are also possible outside of the official opening hours from Tue-Fri by prior arrangement).

Recovering, documenting, and analyzing fanzines made by young people in Mendoza, Argentina, since the 1990s helps to understand the diverse experience of youth political engagement. This exhibition focuses on zine production during two periods of intense social mobilisation in Argentina: the economic and social crisis of the late 1990s, and the wave of feminist mobilisation over the past decade. 

The zine scene offers a lens through which to explore young people’s political commitments and the ways in which their political and cultural practices are shaped. It reveals how generational experiences rooted in local contexts resonate with, and engage in dialogue with, those of young people in other places and times. Fanzines invite us to consider the echoes of youth political demands and practices across borders and historical moments, from the past through the present and into possible futures.

With this selection, we invite you to reflect on continuities, changes, and ruptures in the ways in which young people articulate their political position through fanzines.

This exhibition is part of:

Echoes of Authority
Three Days of Workshops, Discussions, Exhibitions, Performances, and More

March 24–27, 2026

Convened by Zainabu Jallo, Nina Kerschbaumer, Anna [Anouk] Luhn, and Victoria Seca

Festival

Curatorial essay

What is a fanzine?

Fanzines are a form of self-publishing. Like political “newsletters” or literary “booklets,” they allow for the free choice of content, independent production, craftsmanship, limited editions, and hand-to-hand circulation. 

These processes constitute a set of ethical and aesthetic principles that animate a variety of editorial projects, often running counter to hegemonic norms. Fanzines are autonomous and independent projects with a disruptive, critical, utopian, and even clandestine potential. 

The wish to express a position and to spread ideas has been the driving force behind the production of fanzines. In Argentina, fanzines were established by the punk scene during the 1990s. Today, they are used across a range of cultural scenes. 

Punk Fanzines (1995–2002)

After a decade of consolidation of the neoliberal accumulation model, the late 1990s in Argentina were marked by structural unemployment, labour precarity, rising poverty, and growing inequality, shaping an Exclusionary Society (Svampa 2005). 

This era was characterised by social fragmentation, the erosion of citizenship, and the expansion of survival strategies and collective organisations. These processes not only deteriorated material living conditions but also reshaped subjectivities, identities, and collective expectations. 

The fanzine became a means of communication and a space for elaborating collective youth perspectives, enabling the articulation of ethical and political positions in this context of cultural crisis and social fragmentation.  Both in terms of aesthetics and content, these handmade publications were part of a musical and cultural network energised by young people who found themselves caught between a rejection of institutional forms of participation and the constant recurrence of injustices, austerity measures, and renewed expressions of repressive authoritarianism.in dialogue with international struggles and movements, including anarchism, antifascism, feminism, as well as anti-colonial, ecological and animal liberation movements.  

At a time when the internet had not yet become widespread in Argentina, the idea of counter-information resonated strongly. Counter-narratives emerged that, at the time, were novel, unsettling, and often delegitimised. These included human rights, gender perspectives, anti-speciesism, memories of struggle, and experiences of self-management. 

Feminist Fanzines (2015–2025)

From the first mass mobilisation of the Ni Una Menos collective on June 3, 2015—demanding an end to femicide and gender-based violence—to the approval of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law on December 30, 2020, feminist themes, discourses, and demands overflowed traditional spaces of activism and circulation in Argentina (and in Latin America). 

This era gave rise to a scenario characterised by the coexistence of multiple feminisms, dissident identities, and diverse frameworks of struggle—gender, sexuality, class, and intersectionality—shaping a wide range of activist practices. In this context, young women in particular emerged as central political actors shaping the public arena (Elizalde, 2018; Seca, 2019).

Within this context, feminisms have employed a wide range of dissemination strategies, with the fanzine consolidating itself as a key tool for collective participation.

The contemporary period is marked by the exponential growth of circulating information, with the internet and digital communication as its foundation.  At the same time, there has been a renewed appreciation of paper-based publications as resources for encounter, direct interaction, and humanised forms of exchange. Unlike earlier moments, current handmade publications tend to focus on more personal reflections, while also addressing issues linked to other social movements, such as human rights, environmentalism, antifascism, and anti-police violence.

Feminist fanzines have played a role in disseminating debates and sharing experiences and sentiments within the feminist and LGTTBIQ+ community, while also highlighting other social struggles that are closely connected to feminist practices.

Closing text

Hazlo con otrxs enables the identification of continuities, transformations, and ruptures in editorial self-production practices and related discourses and debates. Collectively, these materials illuminate the meanings young generations construct regarding political commitments. Images, ideas, and expressions of discontent are rooted in a specific territory, yet they echo political experiences from other historical periods and places. 

In terms of production modes, the persistence of the handmade character of these publications is particularly striking, despite the availability of technological tools. The commitment to paper editions and “hand-to-hand” circulation remains an ethical and aesthetic choice that defines this type of production. 

One of the most significant ruptures is the shift from collective projects (prevalent in the 1990s) to more personal initiatives that dominate today. Additionally, the local punk scene is no longer the main space for zine production, although some projects continue to sustain its logic, aesthetics, and updated premises. 

Certain concerns and debates also endure over time, shared—though in different forms—across generations. These include at least four key thematic areas: 

• Feminist discourses, demands for recognition of sexual diversity, and anti-sexism more broadly: In addition to the critique of sexism, the denunciation of discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the fight for reproductive rights, a range of other discourses emerge around the different manifestations of patriarchal violence and demands shaped by an intersectional feminism. Local experiences resonate with those seen in Switzerland. Frauenstreik (Women's Strike), an annual nationwide mobilisation held on June 14th, advocates for "real equality" and an end to patriarchal violence in Switzerland. Over time, the movement's demands expanded beyond wage parity to include reproductive rights, climate justice, and protection for queer and migrant women. And the slogan “Ni Una Menos” echoes in fanzines, on social media, and in mobilisations across Argentina, Switzerland, and beyond. 
• Environmental issues, veganism, and anti-speciesism: When we say that the agenda is marked by critiques of animal abuse and denunciations of capitalist ways of producing and selling food—often taking McDonald’s as an example—we could be referring to fanzines produced in Mendoza in the 1990s or to the fanzine Panik Bourgeoise (No. 0, January 1993), produced in Switzerland. These critiques are intertwined with a commitment to veganism, which has become more central in the current period. From a critical perspective on speciesism, they promote considering the interests of all sentient beings, not only humans. Additionally, linked with feminist demands, we find narratives emerging from the concept of body-territory.
• Human rights, memory, and resistance to repression: This thematic area addresses the pursuit of justice for victims of police violence during the democratic period, citing cases across both periods and reflecting mobilisations like those in Switzerland, example for Justice 4 Nzoy (2021), and the outrage and demonstration against police violence, over three lives lost in Lausanne, 2025). It also encompasses demands for accountability regarding human rights violations during Argentina’s last military dictatorship, connected globally with anti-fascist struggles (as can be seen not only in the texts but also in the iconography). These practices and discourses not only build a generational memory but also contribute to the construction of a broader historical memory. 
• Internationalist perspective: On the one hand, the articulation of local demands with historical and contemporary events occurring elsewhere; on the other, the use of images, figures, and organisational experiences that open new readings and debates.  

The transition from Hazlo tu mismo [Do It Yourself] to Hazlo con otrxs [Do It Together] emerges as a central task for self-managed projects and underground editorial practices. Moreover, the first slogan, in Spanish, refers to the individual practice of a male subject, whereas the second not only emphasises cooperative work but also incorporates gender diversity through the use of gender-inclusive language. The creation of a fanzine memory allows encounters with urgent productions and alternative worlds. Echoes of resistance that resonate across borders and through time. 

Exhibits

The materials presented in this exhibition are part of the Fanzine Archive, a project dedicated to the recovery and preservation of self-managed publications produced in Mendoza, Argentina. The project was initiated by Dr Nazareno Bravo as part of his research project “Cultural Self-Management, Editorial Practices, and Youth in Mendoza, Argentina” (CONICET), and continues within the framework of the research project “Youth Cultures in Mendoza: Participation, Citizenship, and Generational Experiences” (National University of Cuyo), conducted by Núcleo de Estudios en Juventudes (Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, National University of Cuyo).

Fanzines included in this exhibition:

• Alamaruska. 2025.
• Alien Disidente. 2017.
• Amapola. 2017.
• Attitude, 1. 2002.
• Badpipol. 2019.
• Crónicas de la furia. 2022.
• Cuerpo sano en útero. 2019.
• Disturbio Kallejero, 1. 1999.
• Disturbio Kallejero, 2. 2001.
• Fauna Intestinal 1. 2017.
• Fauna Intestinal 4.
• Golpe Violento Antifa. 2000.
• Indómita, 6. 2018.
• La Marcha de las Putas. 2015.
• Monstruo, 2. 1999.
• No quedarse solo en el a.c.a.b. 2022.
• Oda a la bruja. 2017.
• Sucia, 3. 2020.
• Sucia. 2022.
• Transición al veganismo. 2019.
• Ya basta. 2015.

Credits & curators’ bios

This exhibition was created by Dr. Nazareno Bravo (researcher at CONICET, Argentina), Dr. Victoria Seca and Dr. Zainabu Jallo (both early career fellows at the Collegium Helveticum). 

Nazareno Bravo is a sociologist with a PhD in Social Sciences. He is a researcher at CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina) and professor at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. His research has explored the intersections between activism, memory, collective action, artistic practices, and self-management. To date, he has published three books, (Re) inventarse en la acción política (2012), Apuntes de la memoria (2014), and Resistencias Gráficas: autogestión y militancia desde las imágenes en Mendoza (2022), as well as numerous book chapters, articles in academic journals, and outreach pieces. He has also led research and university extension projects and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate theses. He is a member of the Núcleo de Estudios en Juventudes at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (National University of Cuyo), is part of the collective Hijxs-Mendoza, and conducts participatory action research within the Mendoza fanzine circuit.

Zainabu Jallo is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in anthropology, whose work focuses on material culture and the histories of criminal anthropology in Italy, Brazil, and Cuba. Her work examines the significant impact of criminal anthropology and the implications of scientific counterfactuals on Afro-Atlantic traditions. She is the author of Diasporic Consciousness in the Material Culture of Brazilian Candomblé (2025) and editor of the volume Material Culture in Transit: Theory and Practice (2023), part of the Routledge Studies in Anthropology and Museums series. Zainabu is an early-career fellow at the Collegium Helveticum (2025–2026) and at the University of Basel, she teaches at the Ethnologisches seminar, where she co-produces the Ethnographic Imagination Basel (EIB) Podcast.

Victoria Seca is a sociologist specializing in youth studies and social conflict. Her research explores how young people engage with politics, focusing on climate and far-right youth activism in Argentina. She investigates how their political commitments shape their understandings of democracy and how their practices support, reshape, or challenge democratic life. Her approach combines political sociology and youth studies.  She is the co-author of Escuelas secundarias privadas, política y participación (2023), Metodología de la Investigación Científica (2020), and she published numerous book chapters, and articles in academic journals. Victoria is an early-career fellow at the Collegium Helveticum (2025–2026) and a member of the Núcleo de Estudios en Juventudes at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (National University of Cuyo).

References

Bravo, Nazareno (2021). Una memoria fanzinera. Autogestión y revistas artesanales en la escena punk mendocina de los noventa. In Belén Ciancio (Comp.), Imágenes Paganas; otras memorias, otros géneros (pp. 35–52). Imago Mundi. 

Elizalde, Silvia (2018). Hijas, hermanas, nietas: Genealogías políticas en el activismo de género de las jóvenes. Revista Ensambles en Sociedad, Política y Cultura, 4, 86–93. 

Seca, Victoria (2019). “Estamos haciendo historia”: Activismos juveniles por el derecho al aborto en Mendoza (Argentina). En Marina Larrondo & Camila Ponce Lara (Eds.), Activismos feministas jóvenes: Emergencias, actrices y luchas en América Latina (pp. 79–89). CLACSO.

Svampa, Maristella (2005). La sociedad excluyente: La Argentina bajo el signo del neoliberalismo. Taurus.