Utopian display. Geopolitical curating

That contemporary art, by means of biennials, neo-museum institutions and financial markets, has currently become a global phenomenon is a given. Much less of a given is that the paradigm “Art,” as it has become established through its modernist legacy, is affiliated with a multiplication of visions, with a latitude of different and interlocking histories and with transversal and diverse contexts. Within the contemporary artistic scene, one has the impression that “being equal” means nothing more than adhering to the same Art institution. To emancipate oneself thus means belonging to Art as to a same world, sharing an already established world that, as such, can only infinitely reproduce that which is already implicit within it. Despite everything, our model of art continues to be very similar to that of an institution capable of determining the integration of minorities as a majoritarian measure (in their identity, their unity) or their exclusion. With a degree of skepticism towards both globalization effects and the latest premises of the so-called de-globalization, the anthology Utopian Display attempts to bring together curatorial experiences that have matured over the past thirty years in various geopolitical contexts – from Africa to China, from India to Latin America, from the Middle East through to the post-Soviet areas. The authors, all from different generations, are amongst the most important and experimental voices of contemporary, curatorial research.