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Beyond formal schooling, Hanoi Children’s Palace extended socialist cultivation into leisure time, reverie, artistic endeavors, and sports training. More than simply school routine, rituals were designed to develop the body and mind of the “new socialist human,” laying the foundation for building socialism in post-independence Vietnam. Taking the ideological history, architecture, and uncertain future of the Children’s Palace as a point of departure within the city’s broader projection of the creative industries as a strategic force, the project sought to examine how the institution’s pedagogical inheritance persists within the textures of everyday life and socialist memory.

In looking at photographs of live models, plaster casts of Greek sculptures, and students on the website (figs. 1a and 1b) of the Sir J. J. School of Art (JJ) in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), one notices how the condition of the body and labor in relation to art is a haunting presence in 20th-century photography. Shot between the…

Evelyn Ashamallah (born 1948) presides over history from her small apartment in Talaat Harb in downtown Cairo. Across the past six decades, she has demonstrated a legacy of constant negotiation…

Karlo Kacharava (1964–1994), a prominent Georgian artist, writer, art critic, and poet, has been referred to as “the voice of his generation” and a “supernova.” In my contribution to the book Karlo Kacharava: Sentimental Traveller, published in 2023 on the occasion of Kacharava’s solo exhibition in Ghent at S.M.A.K., I discuss the intertwining of his “oceanic” body of work, both visual and written, with his short but extraordinary life.

Sharon Chin is an artist and activist based in Port Dickson, Malaysia. Chin talks about how she has learned to cultivate a productive relationship between these two pursuits across two decades. The artist shares her thoughts about the locations and locutions of the political in her work.

This interview with the sibling duo behind Bombay Duck Designs explores their omnivorous curiosity for the diversity of visual cultures in India and suggests that an embrace of what may, on the surface, seem chaotic reveals opportunities for understanding and connection.  Paul Galloway: An aspect of your work that intrigues me is that it is steeped…

“Mary is . . . a myth of a woman without a vagina,” proclaims queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid in Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender, and Politics. Moreover, Althaus-Reid declares that the adoration of the Virgin in Latin America in the…

The annual Asilah Cultural Moussem, an international festival held in northern Morocco, was cofounded in 1978 by Mohamed Benaïssa and Mohamed Melehi in collaboration with Toni Maraini and Al Muhit Cultural Association. It served as a significant postcolonial cultural platform, involving activists from the Casablanca Art School and artists from Africa, the Arab world, Asia,…

The concept of establishing a museum in a remote region of India—one that is not only geographically isolated but also prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and cyclones—presents a complex set of challenges. Yet, it also offers a rare opportunity to engage deeply with the traditional knowledge systems of local communities. Located in Ajrakhpur,…

This public program brought together Nancy Adajania, May Adadol Ingawanij, and Frida Muenala from Mullu for an evening of inquiry into forms and practices of gathering. The speakers, who represent diverse practices in the cultural fields—from art making to curation to institutional leadership—and operate across vast geographies, unpacked their different approaches to assemblies. Among the…

“The past must not be forgotten, but the present reminds us of the past, so we must take responsibility for it.” —Romuald Hazoumè Romuald Hazoumè (born 1962, Porto-Novo, Benin) began his artistic training unintentionally. Between the ages of 10 and 12, he made masks as part of…

Debates around the ownership of cultural heritage and decolonizing museums have become increasingly visible and polarizing in the public domain, leading to attempts to redefine the term “museum” itself.1The International Council of Museums (ICOM) Extraordinary General Assembly approved the following new definition of “museum” at the 26th ICOM General Conference held in Prague in August…