Avant-Garde and Liberation

June 7 to September 22, 2024

Avant-Garde and Liberation
Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism

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 twenty-four 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

Curated by Christian Kravagna, co-curated by Matthias Michalka

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patricia kaersenhout
Le retour des femmes colibris, 2022
film: Black and white, sound, 18:23 min
© Courtesy patricia kaersenhout und Bonnefanten, Maastricht

02 Ba

02 Ba

Omar Ba
Clin d‘oeil à Cheikh Anta Diop – Un continent à la recherche de son histoire, 2017
Oil, pencil, acrylic, ink, gouache on corrugated cardboard
Approx. 330 x 718 x 40 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Templon, New York / Paris / Brussels
© Adagp, Paris, 2024 / Photo: Galerie Templon, New York / Paris / Brussels
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

tack of 53 books of the first edition of James Baldwin's 'The Fire Next Time'

03 Leonard

03 Leonard

Zoe Leonard
Tipping Point, 2016
Installation: stack of 53 bookos (James Baldwin: The Fire Next Time, first edition, Dial Press, New York 1963)
Approx. 100 x 15 x 20 cm
Photo: Simon Vogel
Courtesy the artist, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne and Hauser & Wirth, New York

A black man wearing sunglasses looks to the left as seen from the viewer and holds a black mask in his hand, which appears to be resting on his shoulder

04 Pecou

Fahamu Pecou, A.W.N. (Artist with Negritude), 2012
Acryl auf Leinwand
178 × 147 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Backslash, Paris
© Backslash, Paris

On the left of the picture, a couple of men in white robes are standing in a raised position; in front of them, a man is sitting cross-legged with his eyes downcast. Children are sitting in front of them, looking up at the men.

05 Dodiya

05 Dodiya

Atul Dodiya, Volunteers at the Congress House—August 1931, 2014
Oil, acrylic with marble dust and oil-stick on canvas
183 × 183 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Chemould Prescott Road
© Anil Rane

06 Clottey

06 Clottey

Serge Attukwei Clottey
James Baldwin, 2020–2021
Oil paint, paper posters, and duct tape on cork board
127 x 124,5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Simchowitz Gallery, Los Angeles
© Bildrecht, Wien 2024

07 Brackens

07 Brackens

Diedrick Brackens
infernal garden, 2022
woven cotton and acrylic yarn
264,2 x 251,5 cm
© Diedrick Brackens. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles

08 Issa

08 Issa

Iman Issa
Self-Portrait (Self as Doria Shafik), 2020
3d print, acrylic, epoxy, paint, metal poles, 60 × 33,5 × 43,5 cm
Text panel under glass, 7 × 12 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London / Piraeus; photo: Trevor Good

09 Takadiwa

09 Takadiwa

Moffat Takadiwa
The Occupation of Land, 2019
Found computer keys, toothbrushes, and plastic bottle tops
304,8 × 365,7 × 17,8 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles/Bucharest; photo: Lee Tyler Thompson

10 Jembere

Janine Jembere
Abiona Esther Ojo channelling Faith Ringgold, 2023
from the 10-part series Channelling (Vienna), 2023
C-Prints
20 x 20 cm
Courtesy Janine Jembere

11 Sulter

11 Sulter

Maud Sulter
Les Bijoux VII, 2002–2006
9-part series: large-format polaroids
each 68,5 x5 1,8cm
Courtesy of the Estate of Maud Sulter
© Estate of Maud Sulter. All rights reserved, Bildrecht / Artimage 2024

12 Exhibition view

12 Exhibition view

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
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

13 Exhibition view

13 Exhibition view

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
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

14 Exhibition view

14 Exhibition view

exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
Atul Dodiya, Mahatma Gandhi entering G D Birla’s Packard, 2016 – 2018
Vivan Sundaram, Mill Re-Call, 2015
Fahamu Pecou, gun Dance 04, 2016
Zoe Leonard, Tipping Point, 2016
Fahamu Pecou , Corps Perdu, l'ȃme se Retrouve, 2012
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

15 Exhibition view

15 Exhibition view

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
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

16 Exhibition view

16 Exhibition view

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
Vivan Sundaram, One and the Many, 2024
Photo: Georg Petermichl / mumok

17 Exhibition view

17 Exhibition view

Exhibition view: Avant-Garde and Liberation. Contemporary Art and Decolonial Modernism, June 7, to September 22, 2024
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

Katharina Murschetz
T:+43-1-525 00-1400
F:+43 1 52500-1300
katharina.murschetz@mumok.at

Katharina Kober
T:+43-1-525 00-1309
F:+43 1 52500-1300
katharina.kober@mumok.at

Published on December 21, 2023

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