The III SITAC focuses on the concept of RESISTENCIA as the topic of debate and reflection. It is indeed an ambigous term that nevertheless merits revion given recent cultural and political events. These, in addition to weakening Western democratic ideals, have shown the scant incidence the opinion of the commmon person has in his own social environment. The great democracies of today suffer from a kind of schizophrenia in which action and discourse are more dislocated tan ever. This leads to a series of contradictions and major disproportions in control discourses and methods emplayed by those in power. It is also worth noting that perhaps for the first time in history this situation is not limited to so-called developing nations. Instead, it also affects some of the most advanced societies on the globe.

Facing this situation makes the need for a critical and contentious cultural project not only desirable but also indispensable. Nevertheless it seems that a large part of artistic strategies that have been initiated in this vein have turned out to be insufficient or else they have been easily integrated within the system that they seem to question. It is in the context of this contradiction that the Third SITAC attempts to delve into the possibility of a new form of social, cultural and artistic activism, one that perhaps offers some prospect of efficacy on a smaller scale and in more immediate contexts. We want to restate not only the need, but also the very possibility of resistance, of confrontation, of negotiation, of looking for alternatives and if all else fails, of the prerogative that all of us have to say NO...