The Asian-African Conference held in 1955 in the city of Bandung, Indonesia, can be considered a catalyst of already existing political and cultural affiliations. Stimulated by the Bandung moment, this Asian-African alliance had an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist rationale. Reanimating the so-called ‘third-way’ political imagination carried by the Bandung spirit, this collective research is driven by a poetics of correspondence, addressing cultural traditions while at the same time revealing translational experiences across Asia, Africa, and their diasporas.
Live roundtables will be held online and in English language every Thursday, bringing together scholars, curators, and artists to explore the political, artistic and cultural resonances of the Bandung Conference.
Thursday, 11 November, 17h (CET)
Noor Abuarafeh Lara Khaldi
Letters to a Museum
In a lecture-performance, Noor Abuarafeh and Lara Khaldi chronicle their search of a painting of the Bandung Conference (1955) by the Egyptian painter Abdel Hadi El-Gazar. They follow the traces of this piece which they heard rumors about, but never saw a visual representation of. Writing letters to each other, they discuss the invisible painting in relation to museums in Palestine and how, when looking through the narrow lens of the state in relation to representation, objects start to disappear.
Elizabeth Asafo-Adjei
The art of giving: Kofi Antubam’s introduction of Ghana through diplomatic gifts
Prior to the Ghanaian independence, state gifts did not embody character and/or identity – it was a trait that developed afterwards. Kofi Antubam, as a member of the Protocol Team, creatively infused Ghanaian traditional life and symbols (Adinkra) into the designing of these gifts, as a way to strengthen the bond between Ghana and other nations. When presented, the gifts were accompanied by a brochure in which Antubam provided an interpretation of these symbols.