Advanced Lecture and Open Research Workshop:
Charles Esche (curator, writer, professor of contemporary art and curating at University of the Arts, London)
- 12:00 – 14:00 Advanced Lecture and Discussions
- 14:00 – 16:00 Lunch Break
- 16:00 – 18:00 Open Research Workshop
CHARLES ESCHE
DEMODERNISING TO DECOLONISE
(advanced lecture)
This talk will explore possible responses to the question of decolonising or coming to terms with the colonial past from the position of western Europe. Economically and politically, but also culturally and philosophically, coloniality had an outsize influence of thinking and behaviour in the colonising territories of western Europe. While being complicit in a genocide and facing a changing world order, western Europe can no longer be satisfied that its modernist pluralism and capacity for self-critique might restore some semblance of ethical standards. Museums and art institutions have served as places where that pluralism and self-critique have traditionally played out and therefore their reaction to current conditions is (going to be) important. This talk will discuss some of the options towards demodernising as one possible, partial response by discussing the history of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven as an example.
CHARLES ESCHE
ARTISTS VS MUSEUMS AND ART SPACES
(open research workshop)
What kind of expectations do artists have of museums, and museums of artists? What are the pressures on institutions presenting and collecting art that impact on the relationship and are there ways for artists to negotiate better conditions and ways in which their work is received by different publics? In the workshop, we will have a broad discussion about how artistic work is valued by state and private institutions. I would hope to hear about positive and negative experiences from the participants, so that we can together find the right questions and ways to understand these two ‘friendly enemies’ in different cultural and economic contexts.
Biography
CHARLES ESCHE is a writer and curator based in Amsterdam. His academic and cultural focus is on the consequences of decolonial theory for his western Europe home and its relations with other parts of Europe, Eurasia and the world. He is currently writing about and developing with others the concept of demodernising as a way to approach this challenge. Charles is advisor at the Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht and professor of contemporary art and curating at University of the Arts, London, where he works in the Afterall research centre. He will be a resident at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2026. He has published quite extensively in peer reviewed and other journals on museums and exhibitions including Documenta 15/Lumbung 1 in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, on Anti-Fascist monuments in Third Text and on Demodernising in multiple titles. His latest book publications are The Museum is Multiple, Van Abbemuseum, 2024 and Art and Its Worlds, Afterall and Koenig Press, 2021. He is writing a book on Demodern Thinking with Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti to be published by Duke University Press in 2026.
Until 2024 he was director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Among international exhibitions, he has (co-)curated Soils, Van Abbemuseum, 2024; The Meeting That Never Was, MO Museum, Vilnius, 2022; Hurting and Healing, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, 2022; Power and Other Things, Europalia, BOZAR, Brussels 2017; Art Turns, Word Turns; Museum MACAN, Jakarta 2017; Neither Forward nor Back, Jakarta Biennale 2015; How to Talk about Things that don’t Exist, 31st Sao Paulo Bienal 2014, Ideal for Living, U3 Triennale, Ljubljana 2011; Play Van Abbe, 2009-11, RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; Istanbul, Istanbul Biennale, 2005 and Gwangju Biennale, 2002, Tate Triennial, 2000.