Abstract
In the unsettling aftermath of the pandemic, as we resumed cautiously what we once considered normal life, a quiet tension began to surface; something in the atmosphere felt both familiar and uncertain. During the reopening of spaces and studios, the gradual reanimation of our spaces and university life, a quieter dissonance made itself felt. Our return had a sense of inertia, as though we were slipping into familiar patterns out of habit, but not conviction. Something essential had shifted. We seemed somewhat hesitant and questioning what exactly were we returning to(?).
Looking backwards, the period of “returning” seems to have been as well a period of reflection. As we sought to restore continuity, we found ourselves confronted with ruptures, inequities that had always been there, but which the crisis made more evident and clear. Among them, the issue of gender equity emerged even clearer, not only as a moral or representational imperative, but as a systemic, structural concern rooted in the very architecture of our academic and cultural institutions. This concern carries particular weight in our fields of art and design, where representation, image, language, and form are not only media of expression but also tools of construction. As our disciplines shape visual culture, public perception, and collective imagination, they possess a profound capacity to question norms or to perpetuate them. In such a context, inequity is not just an internal institutional issue, but it radiates