June 7 to September 22, 2024

Avant-Garde and Liberation
Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism

Curated by Christian Kravagna, co-curated by Matthias Michalka

The exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation highlights the significance of global modernism for contemporary art.

It raises questions of the political circumstances that move contemporary artists to resort to those non-European avant-gardes that formed as a counterpart of the dominant Western modernism from the 1920s to the 1970s. What are the potentials artists see in the ties to decolonial avant-gardes in Africa, Asia, and the “Black Atlantic” region, to take a stand against current forms of racism, fundamentalism, or neocolonialism? Which artistic methods are employed when addressing subjects such as the encroachment on personal liberties and social cohesion by drawing on seminal anticolonial and antiracist positions of the early to mid-twentieth century?

Showcasing several works by more than twenty-five artists from South Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, Avant-Garde and Liberation offers a glimpse of global modernism through the prism of their pertinence for contemporary art. In the complex tangle of past and present, the exhibition reflects on questions of temporality as well as the possibility of engaging with old and new liberation movements.

Artists

Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Omar Ba, Radcliffe Bailey, Yto Barrada, Mohamed Bourouissa, Diedrick Brackens, Serge Attukwei Clottey, william cordova, Atul Dodiya, Robert Gabris, Jojo Gronostay, Leslie Hewitt, Iman Issa, Janine Jembere, patricia kaersenhout, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Zoe Leonard, Vincent Meessen, The Otolith Group, Fahamu Pecou, Cauleen Smith, Maud Sulter, Vivan Sundaram, Moffat Takadiwa

[Translate to English:] Ausstellungsansicht: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Zeitgenössische Kunst und dekoloniale Moderne

1/6

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Iman Issa, Self-Portrait (Self as Taha Hussein), 2020
Iman Issa, Self-Portrait (Self as Doria Shafik), 2020
Mohamed Bourouissa, The Whispering of Ghosts, 2018
Omar Ba, Clin d‘oeil à Cheikh Anta Diop – Un continent à la recherche de son histoire, 2017
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

2/6

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Radcliffe Bailey, Untitled, 2010
Radcliffe Bailey, Mahalia, 2021
Fahamu Pecou, Real NEGUS do Real Things, 2012
Fahamu Pecou, Corps perdu, l'ȃme se retrouve, 2012
Zoe Leonard, Tipping Point, 2016
wiliam cordova, this one‘s 4U (pa‘ nosotros), 2008–2015
Janine Jembere, Channeling (Vienna), 2023
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

3/6

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Atul Dodiya, Mahatma Gandhi entering G D Birla’s Packard, 2016–2018
Vivan Sundaram, Mill Re-Call, 2015
Fahamu Pecou, Egun Dance 04, 2016
Zoe Leonard, Tipping Point, 2016
Fahamu Pecou, Corps perdu, l'ȃme se retrouve, 2012
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

4/6

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Atul Dodiya, Volunteers at the Congress House—August 1931, 2014
Vivan Sundaram, One and the Many, 2024
Iman Issa, Self-Portrait (Self as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy), 2022
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

5/6

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Vivan Sundaram, One and the Many, 2024
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

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Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism
Robert Gabris, Insectopia, 2020
Robert Gabris, Insectopia, 2020/2021
Robert Gabris, Insectology in my Body, 2020
Fahamu Pecou, Return to My Native…, 2012
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

Program accompanying the exhibition

patricia kaersenhout Still from: Le retour des femmes colibris, 2022

Saturday, June 8, 3 to 6.30 pm

Panel Discussions
The Crisis and the Avant-Garde & How to Connect

Filmstill william cordova, Monique Walton, from: silent parade or The Soul Rebels vs. Robert E. Lee

Monday, June 10, 6 pm, Filmhaus Kino Spittelberg

fin, pero no es el fin (the end but not the end): meditations on race, radical rhythms
Film evening curated by william cordova

In cooperation with Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien the Installation and Performance Dambudzo takes place between June 11 and 23.

Cover of the catalogue of the exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation

Catalogue | 2024

Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism

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Avant-Garde and Liberation

The exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation highlights the significance of global modernism for contemporary art.

Artists

Program accompanying the exhibition