popular spiritualism series 

fall 2026

The Spiritualist Front presents the Popular Spiritualism Series – Fall 2026, a series of open gatherings that revive the memory of popular, feminist, and libertarian spiritualism in Barcelona. Through conversations, tours, and gathering spaces, the series invites us to collectively reflect on the relationships between the invisible, memory, and forms of collective organization, but also to imagine what it might mean today to revive an interrupted political tradition. 

The Spiritist Front was born out of the desire to recognize ourselves within a political lineage that is also our own. A history that was not only persecuted but also progressively erased by collective amnesia and relegated to the margins of narratives about popular and revolutionary movements. To recover it is to recognize ourselves as heirs to those spiritists who imagined other forms of emancipation, mutual support, and connection with their dead.

sessions

november 5 from 18:30h to 20h | La Escocesa

Multiplying Weapons, Imagining Arsenals: Spiritualism and Other Insurgencies. A Conversation with Lior Zalis.

What can spirits do in a revolution? A conversation with Lior Zalis to explore the alliances between the living and the dead, spiritual practices, and struggles for emancipation. From Catalan folk spiritualism to Afro-Atlantic insurgencies, an invitation to consider communication with the invisible as a form of political organization, a technology of resistance, and a way to multiply the forces with which to imagine and transform the world.

Free public event; no prior registration required.
 

november 8 from 11h to 13:30 | La Escocesa

Traces of the Invisible. A Drift/Route of Memory and Feminist Spiritualism in Poblenou with Dolors Marín. 

A drift through the streets of Poblenou led by historian Dolors Marín, retracing the imprints of spiritualism, popular saints, and other forms of engagement with the invisible that permeated workers’, feminist, and libertarian struggles. A spectral counter-cartography of working-class Barcelona that invites us to read the city through its absences and explore its paranormal history. What ghosts continue to haunt its streets? What political demands do they carry with them? What insurrections from the past are still waiting to be completed?

Free public event; advance registration required by emailing esperitcritic@proton.me. To set out on this drift together, please be punctual.
 

december 1from 18:30h to 20h | Biblioteca Pública Arús  

Memories from the Other Side. A journey through the history and spiritist, feminist, libertarian, and labor-related collections of the Biblioteca Pública Arús. 

Join us at the Arús Public Library to explore up close the magazines, publications, and other documents related to popular spiritualism and its connections to struggles for emancipation. A collective encounter with materials that have withstood the test of time and censorship: papers that have been passed from hand to hand, that have outlived the people who wrote them, and that still preserve—inscribed in their very materiality—the radical futures they once imagined.

Free public event; advance registration required. We’ll post the registration form shortly. If you have any questions about the event, please email esperitcritic@proton.me 

bios

Aïda E. Borràs (El Vendrell, 1994) is a criminologist specializing in gender studies, a researcher, and a creator. Her practice straddles research, archiving, memory, cultural mediation, and artistic creation, with a particular focus on the mechanisms that produce, manage, and disrupt the transmission of collective memories. She works with dissident genealogies, absences, and forms of intergenerational transmission, understanding the archive as a political space of friction and continuity. Her practice seeks to decenter the living human subject as the sole producer of the world, exploring the agency of the dead, remains, archives, and the materialities of the territory in shaping the present. She received the 2024 Arte Joven Creación Award for *A Will in Advance*, presented at the FemArt 2024–2025 Exhibition, and has participated in FemArt’s (Can la Mujer) *Emergêncies.7* program. She is currently developing the project “Previous Futures and Political Imagination: Catalan Spiritualism as an Emancipatory Compass,” with an Artistic Research Grant from Barcelona Crea – La Escocesa and within the framework of the 2026 Miquel Casablancas Visual Arts Call for Proposals, in the research category.

Dolors Marín Silvestre (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1957) is a historian, professor, and holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona; she is one of the leading experts on the history of anarchism, libertarian movements, and working-class feminism in Catalonia. Her research has been instrumental in recovering the memory of women spiritualists and freethinkers, particularly through *Espiritistas y librepensadoras. *Pioneering Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights* (2018), a seminal work on spiritualism as a movement for political, cultural, and feminist emancipation, was later expanded in Spanish as *Visionaries, Freethinkers, and Spiritualists: Pioneering Women in Social Struggles (1830–1931)* (2025). Among her most recent publications are *Clandestinos. The Maquis Against Francoism, 1939–1975 (expanded reissue, 2026) and Women of Fire: Internationalists in Catalonia (1936–1939) (2026). She combines historical research with teaching, writing, and curating cultural projects.

Lior Zisman Zalis (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) is a researcher and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Coimbra, a master’s degree in Comparative Studies from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUEDO-Rio). He has been a researcher at the MoMA/Cisneros Institute and a fellow in the Crossroads Community Stories program at Princeton University. He has participated in the MACBA Independent Studies Program and received the 2026 Miquel Casablancas Award in the Research category. His work explores the relationships between spiritual practices, materiality, and political action, with a particular focus on the role of institutions and objects of power in contexts of revolt and insurgency in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has collaborated with MACBA, Hangar, and La Escocesa, and has published essays in MoMA Tabla, Terremoto, La Escuela, Umbigo, and La Internationale.

Biblioteca Pública Arús (Barcelona, 1895) is a library specializing in social movements, anarchism, Freemasonry, and freethinking. Founded thanks to the bequest of Rossend Arús y Arderiu—a federalist republican, freethinker, and Freemason—it was established with the aim of facilitating access to knowledge and contributing to the education of the working classes. Its collection serves as a unique record of the political cultures and emancipatory movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, featuring publications and materials that allow readers to trace the connections between spiritualism, republicanism, feminism, and the labor movement. Today, it is a leading resource for historical research and the recovery of dissident political and cultural lineages.

This series is part of the research project “Futurs anteriors i imaginació política. L'espiritisme català com a brúixola emancipadora,” by Aïda E. Borràs, carried out with the support of one of the Barcelona Crea – La Escocesa 2026 Artistic Research Grants and selected in the 2026 Miquel Casablancas Visual Arts Call for Proposals in the research category.

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