From: Gaelle Prodhon
Date: Feb 2, 2026
Subject: CONF: Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization
(online/Paris, 11 Feb-10 Jun 26)
Institut national d'histoire de l'art Paris / Online, Feb 11–Jun 10, 2026
Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization: Circulations,
(Re)interpretations, and Resistances of Visual Models in the Context of
the Cold War
In the middle of the twentieth century, in the context of the Cold War,
various countries began to envision socialism as an alternative to
colonial domination. The “new Cold War history” and the scholarship on
“global socialism,” which developed in the wake of Odd Arne Westad’s
work, have contributed to questioning the bipolar view of the world
during this period by restoring agency to countries in the process of
decolonization. Far from playing a passive role in the ideological
conflict between the two “superpowers,” these countries sought to make
their voices heard. Numerous attempts to establish a “third way,” both
ideologically and politically, emerged, and several states adopted
socialist regimes that maintained sometimes complex relations with the
USSR (Algeria, Vietnam, Ethiopia, among others). These nations thus
became part of a “Red globalization” (Sanchez-Sibony, 2014) and engaged
in a wide range of exchanges—educational, military, economic, and
cultural—within a socialist camp that was far from homogeneous,
reflecting the persistence of North–South dynamics throughout the Cold War.
Within this dual context of the Cold War and decolonization, the
cultural sphere—and particularly the visual arts— occupied a crucial
place. Socialism offered powerful visual models associated with ideals
of international solidarity, class struggle, and resistance to colonial,
racist, and imperialist oppression. For countries in the process of
decolonization, the production of images served as a way to defend a
worldview opposed to that of the enemy and, at the same time, to promote
their emerging national cultures. Situated at the crossroads of multiple
cultures and civilizations, the images produced within these
postcolonial societies not only reflected this historical turning point
but also actively contributed to it. Analyzing the processes of
production, circulation, and reception of these images provides a key
tool for understanding the formation of postcolonial nation-states. It
reveals the logics of appropriation and reinvention of socialist models
while highlighting the exchanges between the “brother countries” of the
Global South and the Socialist Bloc. These young nations did not simply
adopt external models but actively participated in their redefinition,
producing hybrid images that were both local and transnational. Such
visual productions testify to how postcolonial states constructed their
symbolic and visual identities while asserting cultural autonomy within
the networks of socialist solidarity.
Seminar program
February 11, 2026, 2 - 4 pm
Session 1: Presentation of the Seminar “Socialist Visual Cultures and
Decolonization”
invited speakers:
Christina Kiaer (Northwestern University): “Socialist Axes of Exchange
in Art History”
Rado Ištok (National Gallery Prague): “Art in the Age of Solidarity:
Czechoslovakia and the Global South in the Cold War”
Vladislav Shapovalov (NABA Milan & HDK-Valand Göteborg): “Image
Diplomacy: Legacy of Cold War Exhibitions in the Post-Cold War Continuum”
On Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ viGgOXbcQL6x0qXpehOCkQ
In person: salle Chastel, galerie Colbert, INHA, 2 rue Vivienne ou rue
des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris
March 11, 2026, 2 - 4 pm
Session 2: Socialist Internationalism and National Visual Identities in
Postcolonial Contexts, moderated by Coline Perron
invited speakers:
Giulia Dickmans (Graduate School of Global Intellectual History, Freie
Universität Berlin): “Tricontinental Solidarities: Cuban Angolan
Cultural Relations Since the Cold War”
Douglas Gabriel (University of Florida) and Adrienn Kácsor
(Bauhaus-Universität Weimar): “Tough Love: Caricatures of a Socialist
Friendship across Hungary and North Korea during the 1950s”
On Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ eT0siakJSWaG1xg2uQZYbw
In person: salle Chastel, galerie Colbert, INHA, 2 rue Vivienne ou rue
des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris
April 8, 2026, 2 - 4 pm
Session 3: Forms, Constructions, and Performativities of Socialists
Exoticisms, moderated by Gaëlle Prodhon
invited speakers:
Perrine Val (Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry): “Cinematographic
Relationships Between the GDR and Its Arab and African Partners: The
“Others” of the “Other” Germany?”
Daniela Berghahn (University of London): “Post-socialist nostalgia and
exoticism in The Road Home and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/
register/zrwpL-UxT6aVf6P6VRMzmA
In person: salle Chastel, galerie Colbert, INHA, 2 rue Vivienne ou rue
des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris
May 13, 2026, 2 - 4 pm
Session 4: Women and the Politics of Emancipation in Socialist and
Decolonial Contexts, moderated by Sasha Artamonova
invited speakers:
Christine Varga-Harris (Illinois State University): “Models of
Decolonization and Female Emancipation: Women in Africa and South Asia
vis-à-vis Soviet Women in the Visual Repertoire of Soviet Woman during
the 1950s and 1960s”
Nora Annesley Taylor ( School of the Art Institute of Chicago): “Mother,
Worker, Hero: Socialist and Post- Socialist Imaginings by Contemporary
Vietnamese Women Artists”
On Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ QRb1ijsXRbO_Ns_6QKYhSA
In person: salle Brière, galerie Colbert, INHA, 2 rue Vivienne ou rue
des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris
June 10, 2026, 2 - 4 pm
Session 5: Subverting Socialist Aesthetics: Oppositions and
Appropriations of Socialist Visual Models, moderated by Jade Thau
invited speakers:
Bojana Videkanic (University of Waterloo): “Yugoslav People’s Art”
Maria Mileeva (Courtauld Institute of Art): “Inji Efflatoun’s Socialist
Friendship and Revolutionary Aesthetics”
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/
register/VamjL_28Qfyp53GgtaDyQA
In person: salle Brière, galerie Colbert, INHA, 2 rue Vivienne ou rue
des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris
All times are in Central European Time (Paris, CET)
In-person participation is limited and subject to availability.
contact: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization (online/Paris, 11
Feb-10 Jun 26). In: ArtHist.net, Feb 2, 2026.
<https://arthist.net/archive/51639>.
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