Paper short abstract:

This paper critiques four 'politically aesthetic,' anti-racist and decolonial interventions by African and diasporan artists working in museums and galleries in France, Germany, The Netherlands and UK. The featured case studies include works by Grada Kilomba, Isaac Julien, Owanto, and El Hadji Sy.

Paper long abstract:

Many of the long-established, high-profile collections of fine art, ethnographic artefacts and other cultural exhibits curated for display within museums and galleries located in Europe's major metropolises have regularly featured holdings with problematic colonial provenance, often acquired as a result of theft, exploitation and violence. Consequently, the presence of such artworks and objects with troubled histories has created - and continues to present - significant challenges for today's 21st century museum and gallery professionals striving to make meaningful decolonial interventions to positively transform their collections, exhibitions and education programmes. Some of the most innovative anti-racist and decolonial initiatives undertaken in recent decades have involved establishing collaborative and culturally diverse creative partnerships with contemporary artists, curators and other heritage professionals from the global South, as well as creatives of colour from diaspora communities in the West. This article will present a selection of these interventions, with a focus on art-political collaborations involving contemporary installationists, conceptualists, curators and arts activists from continental Africa and the diaspora. Specific successful projects from the oeuvres of the following four internationally renowned artists/artist-curators will be foregrounded: Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist, critical race theorist and arts scholar Grada Kilomba (b. 1968, Lisbon); British film-maker Isaac Julien, CBE RA (b. 1960, London); Gabonese-French contemporary visual artist Owanto (b. 1953, Paris); Senegalese artist-curator and scholar-activist El Hadji Sy (b. 1954, Dakar).