3 May 2018

Colonial Repercussions
Continuation of the Event Series
Symposium II: “Performances of No-thingness”
26 and 27 May 2018, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz

Under the curatorship of Nana Adusei-Poku (Scholar for Cultural Studies and Art History) the discursive platform "Performances of No-thingness" represents an inquiry into Black diasporic cultural productions as a critique on hegemonic concepts of identity. Black perspectives challenge Western concepts of gender, race, sexualities and dis-abilities through dance and sound performances, lectures, workshops, city tours and dialogues.

The curator Nana Adusei-Poku: "The colonial matrix of power consisting of patriarchy and racism is a fragile, yet prevailing apparatus of domination that demands an intersectional approach in order to be dismantled. Decolonialism has become a trendy term, an often empty and instrumentalised metaphor. The intimate work that has to take place on one's idea of self, which is necessary to bring about real changes is frequently disavowed. The real change is connected to the breaking apart of the world as we know it, an end to the way we think, interact, live through, understand and the practice to push beyond the binary."

Black Cultural productions devise new contemporary emerging aesthetic strategies of resistance. The symposium "Performances of No-thingness" thus investigates cultural productions that ask us to fundamentally rethink Western concepts of identity. With artistic positions on embodiment, performativity and decolonization by Nana Adusei-Poku, Joshua Kwesi Aikins, Travis Alabanza, Ain Bailey, Melissa Blanco Borelli, Jonathan González, NIC Kay, Autumn Knight, Okwui Okpokwasili, Julia Phillips, Peggy Piesche, Anta Helena Recke, Christina Sharpe, Sorryyoufeeluncomfortable and Julia Wissert.

In the third symposium "Planetary Utopias – Hope, Desire, Imaginaries in a Post-Colonial World" of the event series Colonial Repercussions on 23 and 24 June, Nikita Dhawan (Professor of Political Theory and Gender Studies), together with renowned international scholars, activists and artists will rethink new visions of a postcolonial future. With: Sara Ahmed, Nadje Al-Ali, Kader Attia, Gina Belafonte, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Maria do Mar Castro Varela, Angela Davis, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Rirhandu Mageza-Barthel, David Scott, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Antonio Y. Vazquez-Arroyo, Rolando Vázquez and Françoise Vergès.

In addition, the C& Center of unfinished business reading room of the international online platform for African perspectives on art, Contemporary And (C&), will offer throughout the entire event series in the foyer of the Akademie building on Pariser Platz literature on colonial legacies.

Colonial Repercussions is a joint series of events by the Akademie der Künste with the Federal Agency for Civic Education/bpb.

Event details
Colonial Repercussions
Symposium II "Performances of No-thingness"
26 and 27 May 2018
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Symposium III "Planetary Utopias – Hope, Desire, Imaginaries in a Post-Colonial World"
23 and 24 June 2018
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin; 24 June: Hanseatenweg 10

In English and German. Free admission
Workshop Participation: Limited number of participants.
By registration only at day of event

For Tweets on this series of events: #colonialrepercussions and #decolonize

Press tickets and photos: presse@adk.de, Tel. 030 20057-1514
Detailed programme available at: www.adk.de/colonial-repercussions