This e-book offers the findings of the conference ‘Conceptualism – Intersectional Readings, International Framings: Situating “Black Artists & Modernism” in Europe After 1968’ at the Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, 7–9 December 2017, presented by Black Artists & Modernism in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum. The conference and the accompanying e-publication gathered artists, curators and academics to consider two broad, overarching questions: Firstly, how to rethink conceptualism intersectionally and internationally as a strategy rather than as a movement; and secondly how to situate ‘black artists’ and ‘modernism’ within Europe? The conference and corresponding publication includes key note lectures by Iris Dressler and ...

Deviance can be understood as veering away from the entrenched path. For the modern art museum these paths emerged from the west’s understanding of itself and by inference its relationship to others. An exploration of deviant practice necessarily involves undoing long-held institutional, racial, geo- and bio- political formations. We therefore understand the prefix ‘de’ (‘off’) in deviance in relation to notions of demodernising, decolonising, deprivelleging or deneoliberalising – key strategies we hope to explore. The focus is on two research tools: – Archives: The Van Abbe understands the archive as encompassing the collection of art works, the library’s collection and the museum’s paper ...

Deviance can be understood as veering away from the entrenched path. For the modern art museum these paths emerged from the west’s understanding of itself and by inference its relationship to others. An exploration of deviant practice necessarily involves undoing long-held institutional, racial, geo- and bio- political formations. We therefore understand the prefix ‘de’ (‘off’) in deviance in relation to notions of demodernising, decolonising, deprivelleging or deneoliberalising – key strategies we hope to explore. The focus is on two research tools: – Archives: The Van Abbe understands the archive as encompassing the collection of art works, the library’s collection and the museum’s paper ...

I Think My Body Feels, I Feel My Body Thinks: On Corpoliteracy is a gathering of texts and textures from lyricists, theorists, organisers, artists and practitioners. The publication draws from recent programmes, acquisitions and trajectories within the Van Abbemuseum, alongside essays and new commissions to explore different modalities of – and relationships to – corpoliteracy. The book comprises writing, sound and video work, a queer sign glossary with sixteen video entries, and edited conversations. The term corpoliteracy was coined by curator and polymath Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and speaks to a consciousness of mind and body rhythm-equity. Ndikung’s thinking has been ...

Humans can exist without an institution, yet no institution can function without humans. Institutions to a large degree are the people who work in them, but they are also more than just a group of individuals working together. What then does the institutional part of an institution contain? What allows a gathering of people to become more than the sum of all its parts? And in the age of neoliberal self-exploitation, are institutions still operative in the interests of the individuals involved? As is well known, recent decades have transformed the cultural sector. Sociologists Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello identified that ...