Haus der
Kulturen der Welt BERLIN | GERMANY
NOVEMBER
03, 2017-JANUARY 08, 2018
Parapolitics:
Cultural Freedom and the Cold War is devoted to the global dimension of
cultural politics in the Cold War and to the changing meanings and aims assigned
to modernism. Departing from an examination of the interdependencies between
the political and aesthetic struggles of the era, the exhibition further
reflects the ideological foundations of the conflict lines of today’s global
contemporary art.
The friction
between the political use of art and artists’ striving for autonomy is the
focus of the exhibition. The artworks and archival materials on show explore
the ideological contradictions and echoes of the postwar U.S. “freedom
offensive.” Contemporary contributions deal with the legacy of the Cold War
while looking into the relationship between political engagement and critical
detachment. The show furthermore stages artworks from the 1930s to the present
day that reflect the ideologically inflated contrast between abstraction and
realism or are concerned with the question of artistic freedom and its forms.
Archival materials, including influential international postwar journals that
were initiated or supported by the CCF, illustrate how modernism became a
signifier for individual freedom and was instrumental in establishing Western
cultural hegemony in the 20th century.
Info
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee
10 , Berlin, Germany 10557
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