[spectre] CONF: Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization (online/Paris, 11 Feb-10 Jun 26)

[Andreas Broeckmann LEU]

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: artamonova at u.northwestern.edu,  gaelle.prodhon at inha.fr, 
jade.thau at inha.fr, coline.perron.bonicel at gmail.com


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>.