FINESTRES-ELISAVA

Goals

The FINESTRES-ELISAVA Chair for Research and Experimentation in Comics (CREC), directed by Dr. Mery Cuesta, aims to promote academic and professional research, as well as experimental creation in comics.

The Chair is structured around four lines of work:

Experimental Comic (EXP)
Recovery of tradition (TRAD)
PHD Research (PENS)
Collaborations with cultural projects and companies (CREC Action)

The Chair’s activity is organized around common objectives and various lines of work that promote research, experimentation, and the dissemination of knowledge around comics:

Consolidate comics within the academic environment
Train and professionalize researchers and educators in comics
Promote experimentation with the language of comics
Generate and strengthen a culture of comics
Revalue Catalan heritage and talent

Active Open Calls

Lines of work

EXP | Experimental comics

The EXP Grant, lasting one year, is aimed at researchers and creators who wish to expand the limits of the language of comics and hybridize it with other creative and professional fields. EXP offers a research space within the framework of the Chair to explore the possibilities of comics in dialogue with other disciplines such as science communication, performing arts, and exhibition spaces, fostering new narrative and visual forms.

The grant is aimed at creators with a recognized track record in experimental comics and an established practice in exploring the medium.

Grant details and conditions:
1 research residency grant to explore hybridizations between the language of comics and other creative fields (science communication, performing arts, exhibition spaces).

Duration: 1 year
Scholarship amount: €20,000
Scholarship start date: September 2026

2026 Call for Applications now open. Apply now!

TRAD | Recovering tradition

The TRAD Grant involves the incorporation of a researcher who will develop a project focused on research, digitization, and dissemination of Catalan graphic heritage. The aim is to create a web-based repository accessible to the entire research community and the general public.

The selected candidate:

RESEARCH: They will define a specific research topic and period (for example: the work of an author, a personal archive, a period in the history of comics, a serialized publication, etc.).
DIGITIZATION: The research plan must include a digitization plan for the materials that form part of the field of study. The researcher must have permission to digitize these collections.
DISSEMINATION: The grant lasts one year. The required grant deliverables are:
- A digitized repository accessible through the Elisava website.
- A report providing context for the researched phenomenon.

Grant: 1 research and digitization grant

Duration: 1 year
Scholarshop amount: €20,000
Next call for applications: January 2027
Scholarship start date: January 2027

View the scholarship guideline

Aimed at professionals and researchers who wish to develop research into comic production and graphic humor in Catalonia, culminating in the digitization of collections (magazines, graphic archives).

PENS | Doctoral research

The PENS line of action of the Chair focuses on the production of thought and theoretical research. This line involves the incorporation into the Chair of a funded predoctoral researcher who will develop a three-year research project in relation to the Chair’s principles:

Deepening the possibilities of comics as an area of study within academic and educational contexts.
Exploration of the field of graphic essay.
Research into the phenomenology of comics in Catalonia.
Expansion of the limits of the language of comics and hybridization with other languages and practices.

Characteristics of the PENS scholarship:

Duration: 3 years
Funding: €25,000 / academic year
Co-supervision of the thesis: by a supervisor from the UVic-UCC environment and the Chair’s director
Next call for applications: June 2028

Aimed at doctoral students who wish to develop research in relation to the Chair’s principles: deepening the possibilities of comics as an area of study within academic and educational contexts, exploring the field of graphic essay, researching the phenomenology of comics in Catalonia, and expanding the limits of the language of comics by hybridizing it with other languages and practices.

CREC Action

Creation of projects and collaborations with cultural institutions and companies to strengthen comics culture.

This line of work includes:

Promotion and visibility of comics within the Chair’s areas of focus (Research, Experimentation, and Tradition).
Creation of specific short-term projects for the research and promotion of comics.
Collaboration with art centers and exhibition spaces that work with the language of comics.
Organization of academic events.
Organization of other events.

Currently underway:

Agreement with the National Art Museum of Catalonia
Artistic residencies at the Monastery of Pedralbes

Ongoing projects

Comics Performance Gymnasium

Experimental creation laboratory composed of 11 people exploring the diverse presence of the body within comics. The intersection between comics and performance generates a set of practices and forms of knowledge that shift the focus from comics as an editorial product towards the bodies that inhabit this universe, exploring new possibilities emerging from the combination of drawing, visual narrative, and performing arts.

Integrated into the annual program of the Festival Sâlmon, held at Mercat de les Flors.
Premiere: October 29, 2026.
Coordination: Francesc Ruiz and Mery Cuesta, with the support of the FINESTRES-ELISAVA Chair for Research and Experimentation in Comics (CREC).
Members: Alicia Portabella, Ascensión Martínez, Dafne Ortiz, Eva Blanch, Fiorella Briz, Francesc Ruiz, Julie Réau, Marta Cartu, Mery Cuesta, Mica Negrete, and Núr Muntané.

More information here

1st Symposium – Research through comics

Research through Comics: forms of knowledge that emerge through making comics is a symposium on research methodologies through the language of comics in academic, artistic creation, and social action contexts. The symposium is organized in collaboration with the Comic Barcelona event and Finestres Bookstore.

Open call for papers and posters until September 30.

Apply now.

Publications

Article 01: ‘A comic that is inhabited, explored, and lived…’

News