Abstract Since they met, in the autumn of 2024, Pereira and Zorrilla have come together to reclaim drawing research as a
privileged space from which to interrogate and rethink the way we relate to, understand and inhabit the world.
With an emphasis on the minimal gesture of drawing, both artists have framed their research within an important
logic of resistance. In their practices, they embrace the minor, the overlooked, the easily available and the
affordable, while exploring precarious and vulnerable methodologies, and the many lines of intersection between
the emotional and the political dimensions.
Despite being shaped by distinct geographical, cultural and political backgrounds – Pereira born in
Barcelos, Portugal and Zorrilla in Cali, Colombia – the two artists came to realise that their mutual love for
drawing is anchored in the exercise of nearness. That, by implying an act of generosity though accessibility,
drawing is conceptually entangled with touch, care, love, attention and proximity. Connectivity is key here, a
synergy between modes of making and thinking: ‘sensing-thinking’ through a mutual process of learning and
nurturing (Espejo Ayca, 2023).
Written in conversation with each other, this paper will propose drawing as a counter-movement: as a
moving away from the desire to own, dominate, and control, from the endless search for profit and exploitation.
An act of resistance, to overcome narcissism and challenge anthropocentric arrogance. Arguing for the
importance of sensing and knowing as a non-hierarchical bond, Pereira and Zorrilla will, therefore, engage with
decolonial, feminist and gender studies, articulating a multiplicity of voices, including those of Audre Lorde, Gloria
Anzaldúa, Elvira Espejo Ayca and Cecilia Vicuña, to find other ways of experiencing and telling drawing.