Grammars of Repair

Feminist Artistic Practices in Response to Misogynist Violence in Spain (2005–2025)

Abstrakti

This article examines feminist artistic practices in Spain between 2005 and 2025 in response to misogynistic violence. It proposes an analytical framework based on ‘grammars of repair’. Building upon decades of feminist activism and theoretical work addressing violence against women from a political standpoint, these artistic interventions transcend mere visibility and denunciation, instead enacting symbolic and relational forms of repair. Three operations recur throughout the framework: creating spaces for mourning and collective memory, activating testimonial voices and symptom communities, and publicly recognising harm alongside collective responsibility. Through performances, installations, videos and participatory projects, artists such as Alicia Framis, María Acha-Kutscher, Maribel Doménech, Gema Rupérez, Esther Ferrer, Mireia Sallarès, Eulàlia Valldosera, Núria Güell, Sara Berga, Sandra Paula Fernández and Yolanda Domínguez create practices that transform individual trauma into a shared experience. These practices foster ethical listening and assert political agency. These works intervene in symbolic, spatial and social orders, challenging heteropatriarchal structures while generating new forms of community, memory and political awareness. By situating these practices within the broader context of Spanish feminist politics, the article emphasises their ability to render loss visible, acknowledge harm, and redistribute responsibility from the individual to the collective, thereby demonstrating the potential of art as a mechanism for social and symbolic repair.