Christian Kravagna curates exhibition at mumok

Avant-Garde and Liberation will be on view from June 7 to September 22, 2024. It will be accompanied by extensive supporting events such as curator tours, artist talks and film evenings.

The exhibition 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?

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.

Newspaper Der Standard writes: "After five months of closure, the Mumok is showing Avant-Garde and Liberation, theory-laden art from and about the Global South. It is certainly educational, but you should go there well-rested."

Christian Kravagna is an art historian, critic and curator. His research focuses on postcolonial studies, global modernisms, migration, representation politics and institutional critique. Since 2006 he has been Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.