Imagining Institutions Otherwise: Art, Politics, and State Transformation

7. Dezember 2023, 17.00 Uhr
Kunstuniversität Linz, Hauptplatz 6, Hörsaal D, 5. OG, 4020 Linz

Die Abteilung Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttheorie / Gender Studies / Kuratorische Praxis lädt zum Vortrag von Chiara De Cesari.

In her lecture, Professor Dr. Chiara De Cesari will discuss her ongoing research on how art can reshape institutions within the ongoing landscape of state transformations in postcolonial, postsocialist, and neoliberal contexts. Herresearch explores how art can influence the realms of political imagination, institutional reform, and citizenship. While recent discussions in art and political theory have emphasized the significance of contemporary art in redefining politics from unconventional perspectives, there remains a scarcity of empirical studies examining how this transformation manifests in the day-to-day activities of artists and political movements.

In these particular contexts, artistic practice has played a significant role in recent protest movements that opposedoppression, colonialism, corruption, neoliberal restructuring, inequality, and racism. This prompts the question of what it means for political and social initiatives to express themselves as art and how effective are these practices in achieving social movements’ objectives. What does this enable and/or disable?  Can we envision a different future for the state and our struggling institutions through the medium of art?

Chiara De Cesari has been appointed Professor of Heritage, Memory and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). In her research, she focuses on the ongoing transformation of cultural institutions – museums in particular – and how these are shaped by postcolonial (geo)politics and globalization.

De Cesari is the author of Heritage and the Cultural Struggle for Palestine (2019, Stanford University Press), and co-editor of two key volumes in memory studies, Transnational Memories (de Gruyter, 2014, with Ann Rigney) and European Memory in Populism (Routledge, 2019, with Ayhan Kaya), as well as a special issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies on heritage and gentrification in a global perspective. In addition to that, De Cesari has worked with several museums in different countries and curated exhibitions.

Organized by Anna-Viktoria Eschbach
Abteilung Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttheorie / Gender Studies / Kuratorische Praxis