De-Imperial Histories and Blazing Forms

Public Event | June 25th-26th, 2025 | Balzaal, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam

In collaboration with Asia Forum (Annie Jael Kwan, Hammad Nasar, John Tain and Ming Tiampo), We are very pleased to invite you to attend our upcoming conference De-Imperial Histories and Blazing Forms. This conference will be the second in a series of gatherings aimed at rethinking global art histories through the expansive intellectual space of the “world museum,” which challenges the structures and assumptions of both Art History and Anthropology through new approaches to material culture.

The conference will be divided in two days, which will bring focus to the following themes: Making, Connectivities, Value and Spiritualities.

Registration link comming soon

Image credit: Zico Albaiquni, Ruwatan Tanah Air Beta, Reciting Rites in its Sites, 2019, part of Wereldmuseum Collection, inv. number: 7224-1

About the Conference

The inaugural gathering, “Possible Histories and Blazing Forms” took place in 2024, and focussed on the writing of (art) histories in, of, and through Africa and the African diaspora. The term “blazing forms” comes from Margaret Danner’s poem “The Convert” (1960), which reflects upon the blazing power of art and material culture objects from Africa to prompt an understanding of the many worlds made by and inhabited by people from Africa and the diaspora over time and space. Building on this foundation, our upcoming conference, tentatively titled “De-imperial Histories and Blazing Forms,” seeks to extend Danner’s concept to rethink the writing of (art) histories in, of, and through Global Asias.

Programme

A more detailed programme will follow soon

June 25th, 2025

Day 1

June 26th, 2025

Day 2

10.00 Start

Making

Connectivities

18.00 End

10.00 Start

Value

Spirituality

16.00 End

About our Collaborators

The Asia Forum for the Contemporary Art of Global Asias is a new platform envisioned for discourse surrounding experimental art practices and research that produce hopeful new worlds beyond the North Atlantic.

Conceived by Annie Jael Kwan, the Asia Forum works with a council of international curators and researchers, Hammad Nasar, John Tain, and Ming Tiampo, in a sustained dialogue with contributors to navigate the key themes that have arisen in relation to contemporary artistic practices of Global Asias.