Call for Panelists: "Africa, Africanness, and the Contemporary Mega-Exhibition"

Global mega-exhibitions serve as increasingly touristic epicenters of artistic discourse and have redefined the nature of history as an increasingly negotiable and relational, rather than an exclusively localized, construct. Yet, many critics argue that biennales remain zones of expository privilege—fashioning a false sense of global interconnectedness that often camouflages or altogether ignores ongoing issues of marginalization and colonialist ‘readings’ of African history. How successfully and genuinely have the concerns and agendas of African practitioners surfaced within specific biennale traditions?

This panel invites papers from critics, curators, historians and artists that engage with these issues and others, not only from the standpoint of Africa and Africanness as raised within non-African biennales, but also from the perspective of new, emerging, potential and defunct mega-exhibitions within Africa. Submit a 200-word abstract and current CV to royce.smith@wichita.edu.