Anti*Colonial Fantasies / Decolonial Strategies involved artists from different diasporas, students and lecturers of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, who occupy themselves with a critique of the consequences of colonialism –including in Academia– and the quest for transforming this reality.
The project included an art exhibition, performances, workshops, talks, as well as a publication.
Working with various media—performances, videos, installations, paintings, photographs, drawings, and writing—as well as participatory formats, the artists expose ways in which colonialism persists today. Raising questions of race, sexuality, gender, spirituality, space, and time, the artists shared decolonial forms of knowledge production and strategies of resistance.
The start of the project was an open call for artistic positions that dealt with Gloria Anzaldua’s notion of borderlands and autohistoria. We sought to address and open questions in regards to: how colonialism in Austria impacts parts of our multiple subjectivities, how coming from histories of migrations is lived on a daily basis; the occupation of situated experiences at the borders as people of color; how structural othering manifests, the role of the educative institution in the colonial project and what has seeped through to the present time, what the curricula says about what is considered as valuable knowledge; and how to open these topics starting at the body and reclaiming other spiritual dimensions, emotions, and rituals.
With contributions by: Amoako Boafo, Sandra Monterroso, Imayna Caceres, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Stephanie Misa, Gerardo Montes de Oca, Sophie Utikal, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Cana Bilir-Meier, Pêdra Costa, Daniela Ortiz, Sunanda Mesquita, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, Tatiana Nascimento, Ezgi Erol, Firas Shehadeh, Hansel Sato, Rini Mitra, Mariel Rodríguez, and Eduardo Triviño Cely.
Talks by Yuderkys Espinoza and Daniela Ortiz.
Workshops by Tatiana Nascimento and Darkmatter (Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian).
The start of the project was an open call for artistic positions that dealt with Gloria Anzaldua’s notion of borderlands and autohistoria. We sought to address and open questions in regards to: how colonialism in Austria impacts parts of our multiple subjectivities, how coming from histories of migrations is lived on a daily basis; the occupation of situated experiences at the borders as people of color; how structural othering manifests, the role of the educative institution in the colonial project and what has seeped through to the present time, what the curricula says about what is considered as valuable knowledge; and how to open these topics starting at the body and reclaiming other spiritual dimensions, emotions, and rituals.
With contributions by: Amoako Boafo, Sandra Monterroso, Imayna Caceres, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Stephanie Misa, Gerardo Montes de Oca, Sophie Utikal, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Cana Bilir-Meier, Pêdra Costa, Daniela Ortiz, Sunanda Mesquita, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, Tatiana Nascimento, Ezgi Erol, Firas Shehadeh, Hansel Sato, Rini Mitra, Mariel Rodríguez, and Eduardo Triviño Cely.
Talks by Yuderkys Espinoza and Daniela Ortiz.
Workshops by Tatiana Nascimento and Darkmatter (Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian).
Thanks to Jean Pierre Cueto who invited us to apply, and Nicole de Fleurs.
Curators: Imayna Caceres, Sunanda Mesquita, and Sophie Utikal.
Friday Exit, Vienna. 20th June 2016
https://www.facebook.com/anticolonial-fantasies/
Friday Exit, Vienna. 20th June 2016
The project has been presented in:
—Dunkle Energie. Feministisch Organisieren, Kollektiv Arbeiten.X SPACE / WE DEY Vienna
—University of Arts Linz
—University of Vienna
—University of Vienna
—Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
—Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
—T.I.C.T.A.C. Taller de Intervenciones Críticas Transfeministas Antirracistas Combativas, Barcelona
—Kritische Künstlerische Praxis – Semper Depot—Anticolonial Fantasies / Decolonial Strategies. Ed. Zaglossus
—Curating as Antiracist Practice. Ed. De Gruyter
