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Based on the material compiled for the Octubre 2019 project, Structural Fissures overlaps the events of the 2019 and 2022 protests, focusing on the spatial contextualisation of existing structures and dynamics that entail the coloniality of power.

The presence of the indigenous movement and its different realities - within all the problems that were kept invisible and then displayed in the centre of the city and in front of all the elites who could not or did not want to identify with these realities - led to different forms of rejection of the protests, which were characterised by racist and classist discourses and practices.

See also Octubre 2019 or The city as scenario for political encounters*

* The national strikes and social uprisings that took place in Ecuador in October 2019 and June 2022 were born out of the increase in the cost of living and the severe economic crisis that the country was, and still is, facing. The protests, which took place in Quito for 11 and 18 days respectively, were characterised by a highly polarised scenario in the country, which supported the repression on behalf of the state and an increasingly classist discourse around the mobilisations. On the first occasion, the repressive strategy of the state left 11 dead and 1507 injured1. 1184 arrests were carried out during the protests: 80% of them were arbitrary and illegal arrests, while the other 20% were processed without any individual responsibility and charged as terrorist attacks2.

The ongoing research projects follow the socio-spatial components that characterise social uprisings, highlighting the choreographies and organisational tactics that transform the urban fabric and its typologies towards collective spatial intelligence.

Octubre 2019 focuses on the representation and reconstruction of many of the resistance spaces that emerged during the October 2019 protests. Structural Fissures, on the other hand, aims to highlight the coloniality of power and its still-existing structures as the main reason for the growing racist and classist discourses and practices visible during the mobilisations of 2019 and 2022.