What does internationality and internationalization of art and theory mean in a global space marked by power and inequality? To what extent and how exactly is an opening of institutions - from a European, white position - possible without repeating in it itself the gesture of privilege? What is our space of possibility and our responsibility as an institution of learning, knowledge production as well as art mediation?
This seminar discusses power, privilege and aesthetics in artistic debates about postcolonial legacies, framings of whiteness and blackness, protest and possible gestures of solidarity or allyship. Artistic works from the fields of performance, visual culture and sound form the starting point for our reflections, but can be expanded to include other media formats.
The aim is to explore the idea of "postcolonial/decolonial imaginaries" and "counterarchives." This means focusing on the forms of counter-knowledge and counter-narratives that enable us to participate in other imaginaries of globality out of experiences of post-coloniality and marginalization. These imaginaries are directed both to the past - interventions in the politics of memory - and to the future: to imagine otherwise. The "archive" as a contested site of memory and knowledge preservation will provide a point of reference to capture these alternative approaches. Of particular interest is, first, the intersections and differences between art and theory. In the context of the questions posed here, what are the respective spaces of possibility of art and theory? To what extent do they have to be distinguished, to what extent can their very bringing together make something new conceivable and testable? Secondly, the central question is what our role as an institution of learning and teaching could be in the counter-archive and how this could perhaps also be transformed.

Selection of texts (a. o.) :
Daniela Agosthino u.a. (W)Archives: Archival Imaginaries, War, and Contemporary Art, Sternberg Press: Berlin 2020.
Ariella Aisha Azoulay, Potential Histories: Unlearning Imperialism. Verso Press: London, New York 2019.
Tina M. Campt, Image Matters. Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe. Duke University Press: Durham, London 2012
Avery F. Gordon, The Hawthorn Archive: Letters from the Utopian Margins. Fordham University Press: New York 2018.
Sabrina Moura, “The Museum of Black Civilisations, between History and Utopia” in: ZK, Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften #2 2021, ‘The Post/Colonial Museum’
Claudia Rankine, The White Card, Graywolf Press 2019.

Selection of artists:
Heba Y. Amin, Carrie Mae Weems, Bettina Malcolmess/Anne Historical, Pedro Olivera, Martine Syms, Tabita Rezaire, Renzo Martens and others.

A note on language: some proficiency of English is helpful, but the lecturer will help with difficult text passages and at times translations and is well-versed in both languages: English and German.