Juan Paulhiac

The European Association of Social Anthropology's (EASA) Applied Anthropology Network's Arts Hub is a collaborative space that connects anthropologists working at the intersection of art and anthropology to share experiments, creative practices, and projects, while fostering dialogue on experimental ethnography, ethnographic film, and anthropological research on artistic communities.

The CRAL (UMR 8566 EHESS/CNRS) is a research center dedicated to the arts, creative processes, and forms, as well as the languages that account for them. Various subjects such as literature, arts, philosophy, music, sound, cinema, and photography are studied with a focus on reflecting on the role of the sensory in society.

The presentation situates the work of El Colegio del Cuerpo within the context of decades of armed violence in Colombia, which have disproportionately affected civilians, children, and young people, leading to massive displacement and deep social ruptures. Founded in 1997 by Álvaro Restrepo and Marie-France Delieuvin, the institution emerged as a pedagogical and artistic response to this violence, bringing together contemporary dance and social justice through an integral approach to bodily education that unites thought, emotion, and desire. Its methodology distinguishes between educating for dance and educating with dance, understanding movement as a primary form of consciousness and a means of shaping a social body. Over nearly three decades, El Colegio del Cuerpo has generated significant artistic and social impact—through the creation of the Cuerpo de Indias company, emblematic projects such as INXILIO, and sustained work with thousands of children, young people, educators, and communities—and today positions itself as a contemporary school of dance with a multidisciplinary vision, deeply rooted in Colombia’s embodied culture of music and movement, particularly in Cartagena, where dance is an everyday social practice.

This presentation introduces Cuento Aparte’s multimedia narrative methodology, exploring how photographic data can be transformed into audiovisual and transmedia storytelling. Drawing on narrative theory (Greimas), life-story methodology (Bertaux), and applied visual anthropology (Pink), it examines the expressive, mnemonic, and poetic role of photography within contemporary digital narratives. The talk presents a hybrid research approach that combines visual archives, life stories, and ethical collaboration to construct meaningful, experience-based narratives, while critically addressing the possibilities and limits of photography and transmedia perception in applied research and creative practice.

This presentation explores how ethnographic methodologies can be adapted and combined with multimedia communication techniques in organizational and applied contexts, seeking a balance between research rigor and creative storytelling. It examines the role of photography as a tool for shaping audiovisual rhythm, preserving memory, and introducing poetic and expressive layers into narratives, while addressing how ethnographic methods can be translated into communication strategies without compromising ethical or informational integrity. Drawing on narrative theory, life-story methodology, applied visual anthropology, and Greimas’ actantial model, the presentation proposes a hybrid research approach that uses qualitative analysis and co-creation to understand social processes through personal narratives, while critically reflecting on the possibilities and limits of transmedia perception in contemporary visual communication.

The internet has become an indicator of social and economic development, with increasing investments in infrastructure and technology adoption. But what is the social and economic impact of internet access? How does it relate to what we call modernity in the Latin Amerian context? What conditions are necessary for technology to have a greater impact on communities?

This conference aims to present the research undertaken during the four years of the Globamus Research Project at the ANR - EHESS, which explored the strategies of musical actors in both the North and South to establish themselves in modernity, countering cultural homogenization and commodification. This presentation resumes the key topics covered in my research with champeta music in Colombia, notably the state of internet coverage in Colombia and its economic and cultural impact in informal cultural markets.

Cuento Aparte is an applied visual anthropology agency, focused on creating multimedia narratives. Its mission is to uncover and narrate the stories behind the data in a captivating manner for targeted audiences. The agency collaborates on various projects in the non-for-profit sector, aiming to enhance the impact of social responsibility initiatives through innovative storytelling techniques, combining fieldwork and multimedia production to create compelling narratives.

Produced for The Caring for Colombia Foundation's fundraising gala event, held in New York City in 2022, this short multimedia storytelling piece highlights Lesideth Ortega's journey and aspirations to become a professional dancer with the contemporary dance company, El Colegio del Cuerpo. Coming from one of Cartagena's most underserved neighborhoods and growing up in a violent environment, Lesideth's dreams might have seemed unattainable. However, her unwavering determination, along with the support from El Colegio del Cuerpo and Caring for Colombia's scholarship programs, has paved the way for her to pursue her passion.

This short documentary captures Creativity at Work, an international anthropology conference held at the University of Bologna, co-organized by the EASA Applied Anthropology Network and the Universities of Bologna and Verona, which brought together more than 300 participants from around the world. On October 3rd, 2025, the event was unexpectedly disrupted by nationwide pro-Palestinian protests, prompting organizers, faculty, students, and strike leaders to collectively adapt the conference rather than suspend it. The film documents this moment of improvisation and solidarity, showing how anthropology moves beyond academic enclosures into active engagement with social realities. Through visual anthropology and real-time storytelling, the project becomes part of the event itself, capturing the tension, creativity, and political urgency of a discipline willing to listen, adjust, and act within the world it studies.

The latest generation of indigenous community members from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta has a compelling message to convey. Climate change has moved beyond prevention and now demands adaptation, as the irreversible damage inflicted on the environment can no longer be denied. The former generation of Wiwa, Kankuamo, Kogi, and Arhuaco people were notable for their climate activism across the last three decades, but the current generation appears more inclined to accept the irrevocable ecological loss that has affected their sacred territory. "Transient Waters" embraces the deep, even spiritual, significance of this territory's natural water systems, central to these communities cosmogony, in the context of the current climate change landscape.

This documentary on the 40th anniversary of the Young Performers Concert Series and Training Program of the Banco de la República offers an intimate perspective on the formative and symbolic impact of a program that has been fundamental to Colombian music since 1985. Rather than a commemorative historical piece, the film constructs a meta-narrative around the rite of passage experienced by young musicians when they make their debut on the stage of the Luis Ángel Arango Library Concert Hall: the wait in the dressing rooms, the pre-performance tension, the walk through the portrait corridor, and the final crossing of the threshold onto the stage. This narrative finds an exceptional embodiment in the real debut of clarinetist Mariana Clavijo—filmed in a single, unrepeatable opportunity—turning the documentary into an act of shared observation and risk. Following Cuento Aparte’s narrative methodology, the film reveals how this moment of vulnerability and decision encapsulates four decades of cultural, educational, and human impact on the lives of hundreds of performers.