This special issue is dedicated to the memory of Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019), the first African and Black curator and director of documenta11 (2002) and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). The articles and personal tributes collected here recognize the profound impact left by the Nigerian art historian, curator, poet, and educator who transformed the curatorial present of global exhibitions and anticipated their decolonizing futures. Enwezor created political platforms and artistic manifestos that not only changed the form and function of global exhibitions, but also opened up new ways to align activism with aesthetic practices, performative displays, and curatorial initiatives.
Contributors—art historians and critics, curators, and artists—address how Enwezor’s approach to the exhibition as a “space of public discourse” intersects with theories of affect, indigeneity, race, queer studies, and feminism.
Contributors: Sir David Adjaye, OBE, Natasha Becker, Naomi Beckwith, Zarina Bhimji, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jody B. Cutler-Bittner, Jane Chin Davidson, Shane Doyle, Tamar Garb, Kendell Geers, Salah M. Hassan, Amelia Jones, Isaac Julien, Abdellah Karroum, Monique Kerman, Ibrahim Mahama, Steve McQueen, OBE, CBE, Julie Mehretu, Gideon Mendel, Susette Min, Wangechi Mutu, Sabine Dahl Nielsen, Chris Ofili, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Anne Ring Petersen, Yinka Shonibare, CBE, Penny Siopis, Mary Ellen Strom, Przemyslaw Strozek, Mikhael Subotzky, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Octavio Zaya