Colonialidad de la mirada y crisis del orden visual en el Islam

The image and hypervisuality are the new paradigms of postmodern digitalised societies. The articulation of symbolic power relations and identitarian and cultural meanings are transiting through the visual space and are encoded in an iconic language marked by the technological nature of the image. In this scenario, where technological hegemony outlines a new colonial symbolic order that imposes universal patterns of looks and visual codes, identity movements emerge that attempt to assert themselves through strategies of counter-visuality. This article deals with the phenomenon of identity withdrawal in Islamic communities as a defensive response to symbolic hegemony. It focuses on the analysis of some counter-visual strategies and the semiotic cultural tension with the West. The manifestations of this tension are embodied in the visual scenario and revolve around iconic practices such as the use of the image, the spectacular and the semiotisation of women's bodies. In this globalised symbolic universe, meanings are negotiated and specific values are re-signified in a context of visual coloniality and a crisis of cultural identity. The article aims to explore the upheavals produced by the dominant cultural visual model in a subaltern visual semiotic system such as Muslim culture.