Published in conjunction with an exhibition that has traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw from Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt, this volume takes as its starting point the realignment of global ties after 1945—Europe’s “year zero”—and focuses on the worldwide phenomenon of decolonization.
Investigating magazines, journals, and newspapers, the diverse essays in After Year Zero shine a spotlight on collaboration, not confrontation, in the many publications launched at various times and in different places within the African continent or the African diaspora. As the volume contributors show, the format of these periodicals provided a means for temporary intervention against hegemonic voices and made possible the necessary task of creating a new language to talk about art, life, and politics. In addition to text-based essays, After Year Zero also includes visual essays designed like collages of documents, quotes, and images.
With its unique international and interdisciplinary approach, After Year Zero is an innovative study of postwar narrative possibilities and a powerful reflection on the processes by which the “universal” can be generated.
Investigating magazines, journals, and newspapers, the diverse essays in After Year Zero shine a spotlight on collaboration, not confrontation, in the many publications launched at various times and in different places within the African continent or the African diaspora. As the volume contributors show, the format of these periodicals provided a means for temporary intervention against hegemonic voices and made possible the necessary task of creating a new language to talk about art, life, and politics. In addition to text-based essays, After Year Zero also includes visual essays designed like collages of documents, quotes, and images.
With its unique international and interdisciplinary approach, After Year Zero is an innovative study of postwar narrative possibilities and a powerful reflection on the processes by which the “universal” can be generated.
Table of Contents
Preface—Bernd Scherer
Preface—Joanna Mytkowska
Introduction—Annett Busch & Anselm Franke
The Universal Project—Anselm Franke
Universal Pictures: A Dialogue between a Future People from the Desert—Annett Busch
Essays
Négritude as a Concept of Collaboration?—John Akomfrah
Passions of Blackness and Imperatives of a Post-African Imagination: Re-reading Black Orpheus and Black Images—Denis Ekpo
Decolonization in Adversity: Cultural Constellations through the Prism of Présence Africaine—Lotte Arndt
Black Internationalism in Interwar France—David Murphy
On Souffles: Geographies of Solidarity—Clare Davies
Lotus Notes—Nida Ghouse
Pan-Asianism and the Question: “What is Asia?”—James T. Hong
Performing Solidarity: The Bandung Conference 1955—Shirin M. Rai
Travelling Communiqué
Reading a Photo Archive (1948-80), Presidential Press Service, Yugoslavia
Statecraft: An Incomplete Timeline of Independence Determined by Digital Auction—Kodwo Eshun
Accra, and Urban Promise—Lukasz Stanek
Where to Begin, Where to Belong: The Many Returns of Come Back Africa—Marie-Hélène Gutberlet & Tobias Hering
Black Consciousness, Black Holes, Black Suns, and Black Collectivity—Stacy Hardy
New Culture—Bisi Silva
Diggin’ or (Yes, Mr. Neogy, Magazines Do Culture…Sometimes)—Bongani Madondo
African Jazz—Max Annas & Gary Minkley
The Black Elegance: Escape from the ‘80s—Charles Tonderai Mudede
History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Does Rhyme—Fred Moten
Artists
John Akomfrash
Kader Attia
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
Kudzanai Chiurai
Jihan El-Tahri
Theo Eshetu
Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi
Ruy Guerra
Walter Heynowski & Gerhard Scheumann
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Daniel Kojo Schrade
Sana na N’Hada et al.
The Otolith Group
Yann Le Masson & Olga Poliakoff
Kidlat Tahimik
Qes Adamu Tesfaw
List of Works
Biographies
Colophon
Preface—Joanna Mytkowska
Introduction—Annett Busch & Anselm Franke
The Universal Project—Anselm Franke
Universal Pictures: A Dialogue between a Future People from the Desert—Annett Busch
Essays
Négritude as a Concept of Collaboration?—John Akomfrah
Passions of Blackness and Imperatives of a Post-African Imagination: Re-reading Black Orpheus and Black Images—Denis Ekpo
Decolonization in Adversity: Cultural Constellations through the Prism of Présence Africaine—Lotte Arndt
Black Internationalism in Interwar France—David Murphy
On Souffles: Geographies of Solidarity—Clare Davies
Lotus Notes—Nida Ghouse
Pan-Asianism and the Question: “What is Asia?”—James T. Hong
Performing Solidarity: The Bandung Conference 1955—Shirin M. Rai
Travelling Communiqué
Reading a Photo Archive (1948-80), Presidential Press Service, Yugoslavia
Statecraft: An Incomplete Timeline of Independence Determined by Digital Auction—Kodwo Eshun
Accra, and Urban Promise—Lukasz Stanek
Where to Begin, Where to Belong: The Many Returns of Come Back Africa—Marie-Hélène Gutberlet & Tobias Hering
Black Consciousness, Black Holes, Black Suns, and Black Collectivity—Stacy Hardy
New Culture—Bisi Silva
Diggin’ or (Yes, Mr. Neogy, Magazines Do Culture…Sometimes)—Bongani Madondo
African Jazz—Max Annas & Gary Minkley
The Black Elegance: Escape from the ‘80s—Charles Tonderai Mudede
History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Does Rhyme—Fred Moten
Artists
John Akomfrash
Kader Attia
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
Kudzanai Chiurai
Jihan El-Tahri
Theo Eshetu
Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi
Ruy Guerra
Walter Heynowski & Gerhard Scheumann
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Daniel Kojo Schrade
Sana na N’Hada et al.
The Otolith Group
Yann Le Masson & Olga Poliakoff
Kidlat Tahimik
Qes Adamu Tesfaw
List of Works
Biographies
Colophon