Held on May 22, 2015 at the Goethe-Institut in São Paulo, the opening session of Southern Observatory — a research project focusing on the Global South and its representation in the arts and social sciences — revolved around the notion of “Counternarratives.” Understood as a critical project or a discourse device worthy of being discussed in a more speculative and therefore less predefined fashion, the debate about the South strove to set itself free from fixed geographies to embrace symbolic, political and/or historical territories in a broader way. Southern Observatory is a study and debate platform integrated with the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil | Southern Panoramas — and with Goethe-Institut’s Episodes of the South project. Curated by Sabrina Moura and featuring Amy Buono (art historian, UFRJ/UNICAMP) Marcelo Rosa (sociologist, UNB/ University of Cape Town), Pedro Cesarino (anthropologist, USP) and Kelly Gillespie (anthropologist, University of the Witwatersrand), the project’s opening meeting also had collaboration from four researchers selected through a call for entries — Alex Flynn, Cristina Bonfiglioli, Marina Guzzo and Nathalia Lavigne — and from members of the Goethe-Institut and Videobrasil teams — Katharina von Ruckteschell-Katte, Patrícia Qulici and Ruy Luduvice.