This Winter School explores the shift from postcolonial critique to decolonial action in contemporary curatorial and artistic practices.
Rooted in the concept of the contact zone (Pratt/Clifford), we will investigate the museum as a site of negotiation, conflict, and potential repair – a place where historically and geographically separated subjects come into asymmetric contact, and where relational, embodied, and collective forms of knowledge and healing can emerge. With a focus on transculturation, the course provides an overview of the current discourse, while also critically discussing the risks of essentialist notions of identity, culture, and belonging.
Historical and contemporary exhibitions will be examined through this lens to highlight both the challenges and possibilities of curatorial practice as a transformative, situated form of cultural work.
Through theory sessions, case studies, exhibition visits, and collaborative exercises, the Winter School will equip curators, artists, researchers and cultural practitioners with the critical tools needed to engage critically across boundaries of geography, power, and knowledge.