Panels & Lectures

Conference Panels Organized & Refereed:

“The Impact of Curatorial Knowledge: Legacy of Okwui Enwezor”

College Art Association Annual Conference, 2020

Alpesh Kantilal Patel & Jane Chin Davidson, co-Chairs

From the call for papers:

Nigerian art historian, curator, poet, and educator Okwui Enwezor left a tremendous impact, beginning with his 2002 debut as the first "non-European art director of documenta" whereby “Democracy Unrealized” was the "first truly global, postcolonial documenta exhibition." Enwezor’s creation of political platforms and artistic manifestoes not only changed the form and function of global exhibitions, but also opened up new ways to implement social and political knowledge in association with curatorial initiatives and practices. Over the course of the 2015 Venice Biennale,Enwezor staged a reading of Marx’s Capital every single day as a performative speech act, acknowledging the matrix of global capitalism, nationalism, and money-status that global artfairs and expositions signify. In this way, he instrumentalized Venice’s world platform at the 56th esposizione as he spotlighted the 2015 “humanitarian catastrophe on the high seas, deserts, and borderlands, as immigrants, refugees, and desperate peoples seek refuge.” Much needed, however, is an understanding of how his approaches actually intersect with discourses related to theories of affect, queer, race, and feminism, in addition to economic class. Through the enlarged scope of curatorial influences, this panel engages in the political model for transforming the use of exhibitions including the creation of decolonial platforms, feminist/race manifestoes and other types of political interventions. The presenters will contribute to the understanding of the innovative strategies, proclamations, speech-acts, performative stagings, and different ways in which exhibitions can inspire, instigate, and forge new visions to change the existing boundaries in art, art history, and the artworld.