Art and Decolonization is a long-term project being carried out as a joint effort between MASP and Afterall – a center for research and publication of the University of the Arts London, dedicated to contemporary art and its histories. The partnership aims to investigate, through seminars and publications, the rise of new artistic and curatorial practices that explicitly question and criticize colonial legacies in the production, curatorship and criticism of art.

The first seminar on Art and Decolonization took place on the October 18 and 19, 2018. The participants were: Luciana Ballestrin, Bambi Ceuppens, Esther Gabara, Julieta González, Lewis R. Gordon, Yaiza Hernández Velázquez, Candice Hopkins, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Suely Rolnik, Shela Sheikh and Rolando Vázquez.

The second seminar took place on October 15 and 16, 2019, and the participants were: Jota Mombaça, Gabi Ngcobo, Wanda Nanibush, Nana Adusei-Poku, Robert Aldrich, Kailani Polzak, Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino, Rosane Borges, Lea Van der Vinde, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Luiz Felipe de Alencastro and Marz Saffore. The meetings are available in their entirety on MASP’s YouTube channel.

In 2020, MASP and Afterall will hold a third seminar and will publish an anthology with contributions by all the lecturers, along with reference texts on decolonization and art. This page presents the essays written especially for the project, with new texts to be added soon.