In April 1955, representatives from 29 Asian and African states came together in the Indonesian city of Bandung to formulate their goals for the post-decolonization era in a spirit of solidarity.
Image gallery
Papa Ibra Tall, La semeuse d'étoiles, undated (Detail), courtesy: der Künstler, KADIST collection, Foto: Ilse Raps
The research-based exhibition Spectres of Bandung focuses on this first large-scale Asian-African conference, which can be seen as a catalyst for already existing political and cultural connections.
Through photographs, paintings, films, and archival material, the group exhibition at the Gropius Bau illuminates the spirit of self-determination that characterized the Bandung Conference.
After his trip to Bandung, African American journalist and writer Richard Wright published an account of the conference in 1956.
Richard Wright's The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference describes a world in which political power is beginning to shift, and is an important reference point for the exhibition in the Gropius Bau.
Historical and contemporary artistic positions attempt to approach the ghosts of Bandung: the notion of spaces of possibility for historically oppressed parts of the world, which at the same time revealed new ambivalences and complexities of common struggles.
- Curated by Philippe Pirotte, Vera Mey and Zippora Elders in collaboration with a team of international curators.
