Imagining a Future for the Arts in the US | Contemporary And

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Imagining a Future for the Arts in the US

Arts in Crisis

Imagining a Future for the Arts in the US

From mutual aid to getting in trouble, what can we do as cultural workers amid the federal fearmongering in the US?

Still from Dahomey by Matt Diop.

Restitution

Tracing the Then and Now of Restitution Through Mati Diop’s Documentary Fantasy Dahomey

Can the French restitution of some of Benin’s royal treasures constitute a new beginning? Mati Diop’s new film, Dahomey, delves this question.

Laboratoire Kontempo, Film still

In Conversation

Laboratoire Kontempo Embraces the Art of Conflict

The founders of the Kinshasa based art project speak about artistic complexities and concepts of the foreign.

Fondation Festival sur le Niger. Installation view at documenta fifteen, Kassel. Photo: C&

Installation View II

documenta fifteen

Ruangrupa takes lumbung as the starting point of documenta fifteen: principles of collectivity, resource building and equitable distribution.

Colectivo Hilando Paz, Mochilas Útero Cultural. Photo: Carlos Perdomo. Courtesy of Minga Prácticas De-coloniales.

Minga Decolonial Practices, Colombia

Creation as a Collective Process

Minga Prácticas De-coloniales (Minga Decolonial Practices) is an interdisciplinary collective that wants to…

A Bavarian Intergenerational Exchange

"Auf Deutsch"

A Bavarian Intergenerational Exchange

Malcom Ohanwe sat down with artist Ransome Stanley to discuss and compare Afro-German…

Tabita Rezaire Opens AMAKABA – A Space for Collective Healing

AMAKABA

Tabita Rezaire Opens AMAKABA – A Space for Collective Healing

In the Amazonian forest of French Guiana, artist Tabita Rezaire has founded a…

Adjaye Associates has designed the Edo Museum of West African Art

The Benin Bronzes Restitution

A View from Nigeria

We asked 9 art professionals from the Nigerian art scene for their thoughts…

Janine Jembere, to cite: diaspora, sound installation, 37:06 minutes, paper prints, 2019, Photo: Kashira Dowridge

Good to Hear

These Are the Podcasts You Need to Follow

Knowledge production has never been so swift, intersectional, and accessible. And much of…

Image above: Marsha P.Johnson (left) and Sylvia Rivera (right) at Gay Pride Parade, 1973. Photo: Leonard Fink. From the film

White Label

How Warhol Erased the Identity of His Black Trans Sitters

Art historian Gürsoy Doğtaş analyses the power imbalances between Warhol and his BIPoC queer and trans sitters of lower Manhattan

Nuno Silas, from the series The Intensity of Identity,
2019-2020. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation

Nuno Silas: The Intensity of Identity of a Diasporic Artist

We spoke to the Maputo-born artist Nuno Silas about his work in the…

Fernand Khnopff (1858 – 1921), Des caresses (the Sphinx), 1896. Detail.
Oil on canvas, 50,5 × 150 cm. © Brüssel, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts.

"Decadence and Dark Dreams"

What are historical exhibitions for?

Mokia Laisin on institutional omittance of colonial terror.

Mia Imani Harrison, Soil is an inscribed body. On Sovereignty and Agropoetics. Exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary e.V. Photo: Raisa Galofre/ Savvy Contemporary.

In Conversation

Bola Juju: Dreaming up Radical Resistance

Artist Mia Imani Harrison uses her dreams to envision new forms of collectivity.…

Mupfure Church Hand, courtesy of the artist.

Marechera’s The House of Hunger

The Novel that Almost Shaped a Postmodern Postcolonial Africa

Artist Santiago Mostyn revisits The House of Hunger by Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera…

GURUMBÉ:
AFRO-ANDALOUISIAN MEMORIES, Filmstill. A film by Miguel Angel Rosales, Spain/Mexico/Portugal/Senegal, 2016, Documentary, 72 min.

Will Furtado on Global Diaspora

Broadening the Spectrum

Notes on how a wider scope of Blackness is taking center stage in mainstream media

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Institutional Critique

When Artists Speak

Art has the power to speak or even “think” for us by giving…

Renell Medrano, Sienna, 2019. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation

Antwaun Sargent: Tearing Down Borders Between Magazines and Museums

Still fresh from publishing his first edited photography book, The New Black Vanguard,…

Bartolina Xixa, Ramita seca la colonialidad permanente (Dry Twig, The Permanent Coloniality), video, 2019. Courtesy of Maximilano Mamani/Bartolina Xixa.

In Conversation

Maximiliano Mamani: “Creating Art from a Precarious Position Is a Challenge and an Opportunity”

Maximiliano Mamani is an artist from the Argentinean Andes who gives life to…

Nicolas Premier, Africa is the Future, 2020. Filmstill. Courtesy the artist.

Africa is the Future

Nicolas Premier is Reconsidering Visual Narratives

Africa is the Future radically challenges the ways in which the continent’s past,…

Joshua Chiundiza, Bones and Dual Tones, 2018. Photographer: Zivangai Matangi

Digital Arts

Towards New Metaphors of Consciousness

The notion of non-human consciousness is reemerging in the process of reimagining African…

On Anti-Blackness: An Open Letter to Swiss Institutions

In Conversation with Deborah Joyce Holman and Jasmine Gregory

On Anti-Blackness: An Open Letter to Swiss Institutions

We spoke to two of the 50 Black artists and cultural workers in…

Art gallery empty 3d room with white walls, illumination lamps and blank banners hang around perimeter. Museum interior for presentation, photography contest exhibition hall, Realistic vector mock up

#changethemuseum

Hypocrisis

Countless voices of persons currently working in the cultural field find a platform…

Laura Nsengiyumva, Peopl, 2018. Installation view at Nuit Blanche BXL 2018. The immense ice sculpture was meant to melt throughout this event to reflect on the slowly but gradually mental decolonisation process.

No Justice No Peace

WE ARE.

In this current moment, which ferociously amplifies the uncertainty, pain, and disruption caused…

Köln, Museum Ludwig, Sammlung Fotografie, Inv.-Nr. ML/F 2013/0074 (PJ-11494), Free Huey Rally/ Kathleen Cleaver and Black Panthers, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, Oakland, CA, Aufnahme: 1968.09.22, 2012, Silbergelatine, 40,64 x 50,80 & 50,88 x 71,12 (mit Rahmen) cm

In Conversation

Janice Mitchell: Why German Museums Need to Catch Up

A museum’s collection mirrors power: it shows the taste and assessment of directors…

Sambiência, Juliana dos Santos, 2018, (credits: Gabriel Oliveira) originally featured in

Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone

The Forgotten Social History of International Blackness

For people of Black African heritage, identifying with Blackness is the glue that…

Leticia Contreras, Estría Sagrada. Vertigios Preciosos (Sacred Striation, Precious Traces) installation view. Project Row Houses, Round 49: Penumbras: Sacred Geometries, 2019. Photo by Alex Barber.

In Conversation

Leticia Contreras on Art in the Age of Social Emergency

Texan native Leticia Contreras builds landscapes in her art. To C& she spoke about the exchange and her role as an artist, activist, and teacher.

Kiluanji Kia Henda: Memorial to Enslaved People, Lisbon. Foto: Kiluanji Kia Henda

In Conversation

Beatriz Dias: Memorial in Lisbon–Recovering History That Was Made Invisible

"Plantation – Prosperity and Nightmare,” a project by the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia…

Untitled #1, from the series, Mama's Clothes, 2015, by Keisha Scarville. Courtesy of the artist.

States of Mobility

Those Who Leave and Those Who Are Left

Mobility in the arts, geographical or otherwise, is often seen as almost a…

Photographer: Henry Chan - Location: Dinner between Rashid Johnson's Anxious Audiences at the Power Plant Gallery - 2019

Black Curators Forum Toronto

A Black Curator is Never Just a Curator

The first Black Curators Forum took place in Toronto, Canada, towards the end…

Heba Y. Amin, Operation Sunken Sea: Relocating the Mediterranean, Inaugural Speech, 2018. One channel video 18'21'' . Photo courtesy of the artist.

In Conversation

Heba Y. Amin: Understanding the Contemporary Condition via Historical Megalomania

Connecting Europe and Africa by draining the Mediterranean Sea might sound like a…

Betye Saar, I’ll Bend But I Will Not Break, 1998. Mixed media tableau: vintage ironing board, flat iron, metal chin, white bed sheet, six wooden clothespins, cotton, clothesline and one rope hook, 80 x 96 x 36 in (203.2 x 243.8 x 91.4 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Lynda and Stewart Resnick through the 2018 Collectors Committee, © Betye Saar

Inventing Your Own Game

Betye Saar: The Majesty She Holds In Her Hands

In the post-war period, many pioneering Black artists were largely neglected by the…

Maggie Laubser, Born 1886, Malmesbury, Western Cape. Died 1973, Strand, Western Cape, Original title: Wasmeidjie on farm Oordmanspos, Changed to: Washerwoman on a farm in Oortmanspoort, Oil on board1925

Debate

How do we (not) Speak About Art and Violence?

On October 1st 2019 SWEAT (Sex Workers Education & Advocacy Taskforce) publicly called for…

re:publica Sequencer Tour Detroit 2019 with Ingrid LaFleur (center), Armen Avanessian (left), William Senyo (right). Photo: Tash Moore

In Conversation

Ingrid LaFleur: Afrofuturism as a Safe Space for Radical Decolonizing

re:publica Berlin is Europe’s largest internet and digital society conference. Since October 2018…

Nelbia Romero, Sin titulo (Untitled), 1983. Silk screen, 40 x 29 cm. © Hammer Museum 2019.

C& Special Edition #Detroit

Imagining a Way Out: Dystopia and Dictatorships

Felix Jordan Rucker looks into artistic ways of subverting the control of oppressive…

Oliver Harrington, ... And the philosophy of this administration is if it aint broke dont fix it, 1980s. Benday, ink, paper, blue pencil. Courtesy of Dr. Helma Harrington; The Ohio State University, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

C& Special Edition #Detroit

Bring the Pain!

Mearg Negusse portrays the American cartoonist Oliver Harrington and his struggle for liberation.

Images courtesy of James Gregory Atkinson. Photos by Paul-David Raerick

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

A Black Gay Read in Detroit with James Gregory Atkinson

Show Me Your Shelves is a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

Rahima Gambo 'A Walk' - installation view at Treehouse. Courtesy of the artist

In Conversation

Rahima Gambo: The Purpose of a Broader Narrative

She started out as a journalist, but as a multimedia artist Rahima Gambo…

Jack Whitten, Quantum Wall, VIII (For Arshile Gorky, My First Love in Painting), Detail, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 122,6 x 122,6 cm © Courtesy the Jack Whitten Estate and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Genevieve Hanson

Inventing Your Own Game

Jack Whitten: A Painter’s Painter Gets His Long-Overdue Recognition

In the “post-war” period, many pioneering Black artists were largely neglected by the…

The Miracle Workers Collective, The Killing of Čáhcerávga, 2019. HD Video Still. Produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Image courtesy of the artists. The Pavilion of Finland at the Venice Biennale 2019 is commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland, 11 May - 24 November 2019, frame-finland.fi

Venice Biennale 2019

Giovanna Esposito Yussif: Changing Structures Closest to Home

The Helsinki-based curator and researcher Giovanna Esposito Yussif is part of the Miracle…

Charl Landvreugd, Performance

The Netherlands: Untold Tales

Dutch Afro Subjectivities: In a State of Becoming “Black”

The Netherlands was one of the most belligerent European colonial empires. Driven by…

Clara Ianni e Mikhael Subotzky, Triangular, 2019. Image Credit: Lucas Barreto.

Conversations in Gondwana

Expanding Political Imagination Through South-South Collaboration

Conversations in Gondwana is a project initiated by Brazilian curators Juliana Gontijo and…

Ja’Tovia Gary, Image from Giverny I (Négresse Impériale), 2018. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation with Zoe Samudzi

Blackness as a State of Matter

Zoe Samudzi has co-penned As Black as Resistance with William C. Anderson. In…

Patricia Kaersenhout, Guess who's coming to dinner too? Installation view at WOW, Amsterdam, 2017. Photo: AatJan Renders. Courtesy the artist.

The Netherlands: Untold Tales

Patricia Kaersenhout: Regaining Dignity Through Revealing Erased Histories

The Netherlands was one of the most belligerent European colonial empires. Driven by…

kate-hers RHEE, And then there were none. ©2013, performance HD video and C-Print photography, courtesy of the artist

Racism: a bigger picture

The Black, Asian and White Racial Triangulation

The unfading legacies of Western racism is a paradigm Contemporary And continuously examines…

Las Nietas de Nonó, Ilustraciones de la Mecánica, 2016–18, mixed media; performances; documentation of the performance from 08.06.18, 10. Berlin Biennale, Volksbühne Pavillon, Berlin, courtesy Las Nietas de Nonó, photo: Timo Ohler

10th Berlin Biennale

Las Nietas de Nonó: “We Need to Heal the Wounds”

The Puerto Rican sisters and artists Lydela and Michel Nonó present their performances…

Karl Peters, Portrait of Mildred Thompson, early 1970s. Photograph taken with fish-eye lens

10th Berlin Biennale Special

Opacity is a Different Kind of Clarity

Since the announcement in late 2016 of Gabi Ngcobo as the curator of…

boychild. Foto credit: Inès Manai

In Conversation with Wu Tsang

Rethinking the Museum of Tomorrow

Who does the museum appeal to, who does it welcome, and who does…

Shiraz Bayjoo, filmstill

Dak'Art 2018: In Conversation with Shiraz Bayjoo

Broadening the Perspectives on De-Colonisation

Having grown up between two fishing towns his interest in everything oceanic was…

Jota Mombaça, The Feel of a Problem, Berlin Biennale 10 #1 Public Program. Photo: Anthea Schaap

C& Print Issue #8: Jota Mombaça

Exploring the Body as Colonial Occupation

Switching between writing and performance, Jota Mombaça is an artist kicking against the…

Impressions of Wood Land School at documenta 14. Photo by Anike Joyce Sadiq. © ifa

In Conversation with Duane Linklater

Centering Indigenous Bodies, Thought and Practice

The gathering Under the Mango Tree–Sites of Learning, that was organized by an…

Keyezua, Royal Generation, 2016. Courtesy of MOV'ART Gallery

In Conversation with Zoe Whitley

Thinking About South African Artists as the Makers of History

Zoe Whitley, a curator of international art at Tate Modern, is one of…

‘ILLUSIONS’ by Grada Kilomba. Photo by Moses Leo (2016). Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery.

In Conversation with Grada Kilomba

Living in a Space of Timelessness

C& talks with Grada Kilomba about her transdisciplinary work, the presence of the…

Jeannette Ehlers
'Whip it Good’ 2017. Photo: Aukje Lepoutre Ravn. Courtesy the artist.

Decolonial Thinking with Rolando Vázquez

The End of the Contemporary?

In March of this year, the sociologist Rolando Vázquez was invited to Berlin…

“We have to test the premise that nations no longer matter.”

In conversation with Okwui Enwezor

“We have to test the premise that nations no longer matter.”

C& talks to Okwui Enwezor, director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich…

Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, Room. Courtesy the artist.

In conversation with Dalila Dalléas Bouzar

“My paintings show that there is no such thing as discontinuity in the history of art.”

Bouzar is presenting her latest work as part of the Körnelia-Goldrausch 2013 exhibition, one of the ten partner projects of Berlin Art Week.

Zanele Muholi, Miss D’vine I, 2007. Courtesy The Walther Collection.

A Conversation with curator Tamar Garb

“The past is there for us to try to understand in relation to our own desiring gaze…”

Our author Gürsoy Dogtas talks to Tamar Garb, curator of the exhibition „Distance…

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