Fellowship

As part of a series of gatherings convened by writer, researcher, and curator Katayoun Arian, Conversation Circle: Decolonizing Globalized Dutch Contemporary Art Institutions? aims to collectively reflect on the increased discourse about de-racializing and decolonizing contemporary art institutions and cultural practices. During these “circles,” participants collectively discuss with invited speakers the ways current types of institutional engagement with decolonial curatorial models, artistic forms, and knowledges could potentially conceal institutional business as usual and prevent actual reform from happening. Institutions generally impose order, control, standardization, and foster a general culture of resistance toward critique and dissent. What are the ethical considerations to decolonizing art institutions? What happens when social movements, artists, theorists, and curators of non-Western backgrounds are invited to institutionalized platforms to present their ideas and work? In what ways does their praxis coincide with (or negate) a re-examination of organizational functions and forms? What are the implications of global neo-liberal economy on organizing in the arts and culture sector in the Netherlands?

The Conversation Circle is also a space for fostering extra-institutional kinships, solidarities, and forms of organizing necessary to reform cultural institutions and practices as artists, theorists, and curators. The Conversation Circle strives to create a collective space for learning and listening.