Art and Architectures of Decolonization

At a time in which debates on art, architecture and decolonization are as pressing as ever before, this session proposes to analyze pivotal moments of post-independence nation building in the Global South. It argues that a transnational perspective on the history of modernism must be rooted in the excavation of the anti-colonial struggles and nation-building efforts. The session focuses on the relation between art and architecture and particular social and political developments happening in the postwar decades. It challenges the common historiography on globalization, by offering new ways of thinking the ‘global turn’ and returning to Cold War-era dynamics that played out in so-called Third World countries. It interrogates how the study of anti-colonial struggles and of artistic movements from the Global South can contribute to rethinking modernism and decentralize art history.

What role did art and architecture play in the complex processes of decolonization and in articulating political visions and aspirations? How were the arts harnessed by newly independent nation states and transnational networks (whether it be the Non-Alignment Movement or more circumscribed alliances that often used exhibitions or festivals as dissemination tools)? How did individual artists and architects affirm their creative license, at times against the state establishment, and how did inventive visual vocabularies emerge? These are some of the questions that the session will address. Papers will adopt a thematic and/or theoretical approach that cuts across different geographies, as well as examine sites ranging from Casablanca to Dakar and Delhi and the art and architecture they nurtured.