Practicing Decoloniality in Art: Sammy Baloji's and Kehinde Wiley's Exhibitions in Italy in 2022

Abstract

The topic of this dissertation revolves around decoloniality and the artistic approaches adopted by a contemporary Afro-American artist, Kehinde Wiley, and an African artist, Sammy Baloji, to address this issue, specifically considering two exhibitions that are showing their works in Italy in 2022. Through their work, these artists have been questioning the colonial matrix of power as a way to express their feelings towards it and to sensibilize others. The first chapter will address the historical context behind the development of a decolonial approach, before focusing on the relationship between decoloniality and art. The chapter will deal with decolonial aesthetics and artworks, as well as with the challenges of contemporary art places, providing examples and proposals for the implementation of decolonial artistic practices. The second chapter will be dedicated to Sammy Baloji’s exhibition “K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues. Subversive Classifications” at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. His works dialogue with archive materials to highlight a subversive profile of Kongo's artworks, which go beyond reductive ethnographic classifications. Lastly, the following chapter will discuss the exhibition “An Archaeology of Silence” by Kehinde Wiley, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale which questions traditional forms of representation of black bodies and the stereotype of Black American masculinity.