Grada Kilomba: Poetic and Epistemic Disobedience as a Strategy to Overcome Coloniality in Art

Abstract

The question of art has been profoundly reconfigured since the mid-20th century, mostly from the influence of the seminal work of the avant-gardes, which would eventually lead to the current paradigm of art as action, event and, mainly, presence – but also from their flight towards the “non-Western”. Contemporary times are witnessing the emergence of studies that try to subvert modern logic, by seeing the inseparability of the modernity/coloniality pair. How does this questioning affect aesthetic theory? Some seminal authors of decolonial thought, such as Mignolo, Palermo and Achinte, proposed the revision of traditional aesthetics through a decolonial aisthesis, a key-concept that will be discussed here in the light of the exhibition Poetic Disobediences, from the multidisciplinary artist Grada Kilomba.