Indigenous Subversions: Counter/Retrocolonization in Artistic Practice

This panel explores the shift from decolonisation to counter- and retrocolonisation, analysing how Indigenous and minoritarian art traditions, practices, symbols, and materials worldwide have responded to, influenced, appropriated, and subverted colonising cultures—both historically and in contemporary practice. What strategies are used to implement a counter- or retrocolonial approach? How do these methods allow us to reframe the history of art in new, diverse, and plural ways? What does it mean to engage with these claims?

The panel invites proposals for papers followed by a roundtable discussion that examine how artistic practices serve as a means to ‘turn back’ on colonial pasts, presents, and futures within a global comparative framework and discuss how artists from Indigenous and marginalised communities, including Amerindian, African, Afro-diasporic, Aboriginal, and Roma, seek visibility and voice in the global artistic scene. What are the most effective tools and urgent questions in efforts to redefine power relations? How do the experiences and aesthetics of marginalised peoples influence or reshape mainstream cultures? The panel welcomes discussions that address not only the potential of a decolonial discourse but also its limitations, aligning with calls for counter- and retro-colonisation as proposed by Indigenous and other marginalised communities themselves. We especially encourage collaborative and dialogic processes that actively involve scholars and artists from Indigenous and marginalised backgrounds, including initiatives developed through artistic residencies, long-term fieldwork, partnerships, and shared-making practices.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Paride Bollettin, Masaryk University & Universidade Estadual Paulista, Czech Republic, paridebollettin@sci.muni.cz

Caroline Menezes, BSP – Business and Law School Berlin, caroline@carolinemenezes.net

Julia Secklehner, Masaryk University, Czech Republic, secklehner@phil.muni.cz