Bandung to Berlin: Art, Decolonization, and the Cold War
Bandung to Berlin explores the radical imagination of the global Cold War, the aesthetics of Non-Alignment, and the role of art in the era of decolonization. Though these topics are often treated as separate paradigms, their points of interconnection are deeply entangled. As former colonies across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean fought for and gained independence, new national agendas navigated the competing pressures of the Cold War and resisted a dichotomous world order. This conference will explore transnational artistic exchanges and cultural diplomacy in the years 1947-1989, especially across regions in the Global South. We hope to foster new conversations about the confluence of art and politics in larger cultural imaginaries.
October 31 - November 1, 2024
October 31, 2024
Graduate Lunch Workshop: “Decolonization and the Cold War in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture”; 12 PM - 1:30 PM, 3-S-15 Green Hall
What artworks, images, performances or signs help us better understand decoloniality today? Are there contemporary works that offer new perspectives on the history of the Cold War or its fallout? Which objects have informed politics of care and solidarity? For this informal lunch workshop, we request participants to share something that responds to these questions. Participants will have the opportunity to briefly introduce the object, if desired, but the goal is to spark unplanned conversation, building a collective set of academic interests in expectation of the more formal events to follow. This will be a forum for interrogating how the themes of the conference are resonant in contemporary art and politics.
We will spend just a few minutes on each object, contingent on how many are circulated. Please email an image to [email protected] or bring in the object in person, giving us a heads up, before October 29, 12:00pm EST.
Special Collections Viewing Session
Session 1: 2 PM - 3 PM; Session 2: 3 PM - 4 PM
Firestone Library, C-Floor
Designed as a complement to the conference’s scholarly panels, this object-based session invites attendees to directly engage with materials in Princeton’s Special Collections. Building on the transnational solidarities and revolutionary movements discussed throughout the conference, the objects selected are designed to prompt new conversations and questions. The reserved materials include poetry written by Léopold Senghor, Black Panther Party ephemera, the Tricontinental, East German children’s books, and revolutionary posters, among other items. This is also an opportunity to think collectively about the legacy of these materials, activating the wealth of area knowledge in the room through engaging with texts in Korean, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and English.
As the viewing area is limited, there is unfortunately only room for 15 people to sign up for this opportunity. Participants will be selected on a first come first serve basis, and will be spread out over two 1-hour sessions. Each session will be facilitated by a conference organizer.
Please email [email protected] by October 24th to sign up with your preferred session slot. A waitlist will be automatically generated once the sign up exceeds 15 people.
Welcome Reception at Art on Hulfish: 4:30 pm - 6 pm, 11 Hulfish St. Princeton, NJ 08542
Join us to open the conference, enjoy some light refreshments, and view ‘Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography,’ the exhibition currently on view at the Princeton University Art Museum's Art on Hulfish space.
November 1, 2024
All sessions will take place at Louis A. Simpson Building, Room A71.
Breakfast: 9:15 - 9:45 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks: 9:50 AM
Session 1: 10:10-11:40 AM
“Public Art through and beyond Red Migration and Global Capital.”
- Suhyun Choi, “The Art Exhibition of Socialist Countries and the Construction of North Korean Socialist Realism."
- Klaudia Ofwona Draber, “The Politics of Matatu Art: Kenya in 1950s to Present.”
- Jonathan Mandel, “Solidarity and the Global Contemporary: Chile, Palestine, and the Venice Biennale of the 1970s.”
Moderator: Tobias Rosen
Coffee Break: 11:40 AM - 12:00 PM
Session 2: 12:00 - 1:30 PM
“Localizing Transnational Solidarities: Bandung, Beirut, Hong Kong.”
- Patriot Mukmin, “The Asia-Africa Conference: Influence that must be won by the Cold War's Opposing Poles.”
- Natasha Gasparian, “The New Sensibility Movement in Beirut, 1967-82.”
- Genevieve Trail, “Reorienting South: Strategic Southernness and Histories of the Contemporary in Hong Kong.”
Moderator: Nicole-Ann Lobo
Lunch (& break): 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Session 3: 3:00 - 4:30 PM
“(Self)-Fashioning the Nation: Cold War Diplomacies.”
- Amelia Ames, “Congo, Mon Amour: Masquerade as Public Secret.”
- Weerada Muangsook, “Queen Sirikit's Cold War wardrobe.”
- Nectar Knuckles, “Between Africa's Policies and Africans' Practices.”
Moderator: Victoria McCraven
Coffee Break: 4:30 - 5:00 PM
Keynote: 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Professor Atreyee Gupta, “From Berlin to Bandung, or third world Aesthetics before Third World Politics.”
Keynote Speaker
Conference Organizers
Mission Statement
Bandung to Berlin explores the radical imagination of the global Cold War, the aesthetics of Non-Alignment, and the role of art in the era of decolonization. Though these topics are often treated as separate paradigms, their points of interconnection are deeply entangled. As former colonies across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean fought for and gained independence, new national agendas navigated the competing pressures of the Cold War and resisted a dichotomous world order. This conference explores transnational artistic exchanges and cultural diplomacy in the years 1947-1989, especially across regions in the Global South. We hope to foster new conversations about the confluence of art and politics in larger cultural imaginaries.