"Emerging Solidarities" with Professor Nikos Papastergiadis

Engine for Art, Democracy, & Justice is trans-institutional initiative is a collaboration between Fisk UniversityFrist Art MuseumMillions of Conversations, and Vanderbilt University that addresses four themes over eight episodes with the objective of exploring creative approaches to living together in the South(s). Professor Nikos Papastergiadis speaks on a podcast by the program about emerging solidarities.

emerging solidarities

Paths are sets of geographical coordinates on a map. To beat a new path means to occupy coordinates and to repeat them in ways that acknowledge those who dared to explore new ways. How can we plot new trajectories that weave a common psycho- geography through engagement and exchange among us? Episodes three and four examined the notions of translocality, polyvocality, and “orientation,” positions from which we perceive the rest of the world. Bringing together people whose practices have shaped a truly democratic space within the arts, we aimed to launch unexplored interchanges among neighborhoods, cities, regions, de-centered geographies and approaches in search of radical forms of togetherness and solidarity. Topics included the shared legacy of colonialism, diaspora and the retention or adaptation of culture and identity. Art meets activism here in the South, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

Episode 4: Wednesday, 14 Oct 2020

Moderator: Marina Fokidis, Independent Curator and Writer, Founding Director, and Editor in Chief, South as a State of Mind journal, Athens, Greece

Speakers:

  1. Gabi Ngcobo, Curator of Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, 2018 (We don’t need another hero), Artist, Johannesburg, South Africa
  2. Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor, Director of the Research Unit in Public Cultures, University of Melbourne, Australia
  3. Salah M. Hassan, Goldwin Smith Professor and Director of the Institute for Comparative Modernities, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Africana Studies and Research Center and the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University, New York, US

Respondent: Allison Glenn, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, US