I recently visited the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City it is a place that
in many ways serves as my refuge from
the excessiveness of sensation one
encounters in midtown Manhattan I bend a
momen that a sense of home overcomes me
every time I walk up the escalators and
around corners I know exactly where I
will encounter Van Gogh’s Starry Night
arced by tourists snapping photos on
their phones to post to Instagram I cut
familiar paths through the carefully
curated rooms and my body tends to
absent mindedly track from Picasso to
Duchamp to Dali to Pollock to Warhol and
so on down the trailing lineage of
modern art the works on display on the
fifth floor of MoMA come from their
permanent collection until an au
standard story of the avant-garde with
attention on the radical and
experimental artists of the 20th century
here artworks are grouped according to
those avant-garde movements cubism Dada
surrealism Abstract Expressionism pop an
evolutionary model reinforced through
the movement of the visitors body from
room to room the chronological ordering
offers an easy entry point to modernism
as most arrive at MoMA with some
familiarity of those major movements the
interpretation of modernism presented by
MoMA is one I long accepted why would i
as a young art student or even a
youngish professor challenge MoMA
powerhouse of the art world the story
they tell through their display is when
I learned nodded with an agreement and
then repeated I pulled highlights from
their collection into my classroom I
reinforced the importance of Picasso in
Warhol above all others but in doing so
I excluded other voices outside of the
Canon however movement towards more
inclusion is taking place MoMA is not
the same institution today as it was 10
or even five years ago the art history I
study today is not the same I studied 10
years ago my classroom and my writing
are changing in response to shifting
political climates and debates
and news stories are being written about
the diversity of the art world I
witnessed firsthand this turn in thought
during my last visit to MoMA for
curators there recently reinstalled
sections of their permanent collection
in response to the presidential
executive order from February barring
citizens from seven countries from
entering the United States seemingly
overnight curators reinstalled select
rooms to incorporate work made by
artists from nations on that original
travel ban list beside each work is a
label that reads this work is by an
artist from a nation whose citizens have
been are are being denied entry into
United States due to recent presidential
executive orders the names on the labels
are ones that are not typically
encountered in MoMA’s permanent
collection galleries
Parvez tan Ivaldi iranian and canadian
Sharonda shahbazi iranian and german
tala Madani iranian and currently
working in los angeles ton Ivaldi for
example created the prophet in the early
1960s at a time when he freely traveled
between Tehran and Minneapolis without
travel restrictions he was able to
encounter another culture other voices
which helped shape his approach to art
making the relevance for our particular
moment is hard to miss had 10 have only
been working right now his body would
have been prohibited from crossing
borders the cross-cultural exchange
would have never happened
so rather than promoting art and artists
as isolated and nationalistic the
rearrangement shows a world of
connections and cross-cultural
discussions in doing so MoMA refutes the
current administration’s claim that
safety comes through cultural exclusion
and highlights the way that our is
always politically motivated politically
relevant and politically necessary
a few days after visiting MoMA I crossed
a series of borders to attend Documenta
a contemporary art event staged every
five years over the span of 100 days in
Kassel Germany in one of those
fascinating twists of fate I took the
same travel path I had in the summer of
1994 when I made my first solo overseas
trip age 16 I wasn’t too concerned with
my safety I certainly never gave pause
to consider how easily my passport was
granted to me and how effortlessly
I moved through customs and border
security but 23 years later again flying
from New York City to Frankfurt I was
acutely aware of my privilege as a
traveler across borders I freely moved
without disruption to my body
no one detained me questioned me at
length or flagged my identity rather I
sailed through passport control without
a second look as had always happened
before and why the only answer is the
color of my skin and the nationality of
my passport which allows me a shield of
freedom to move between spaces on my own
accord once in castle I wandered the
sprawling City home of Documenta since
1955 modern art needed new supporters in
the years after World War two especially
in Germany where the Nazi Party had
condemned any art not seen as beautiful
or ideal Documenta aimed to return a
positive status to modern art which the
Nazis had labeled degenerate art and
politics have thus from the beginning
been at the forefront of Documenta and
this year was no exception borders and
the movement of bodies was an
overarching theme throughout the
exhibitions Germany has welcomed over 1
million refugees since 2015 and much of
the art at Documenta acknowledged this
opening of borders although agree BAE’s
monument for strangers and refugees a
fifty four foot tall obelisk erected in
the public plaza bears the inscription I
was a stranger and you took me in
in German Turkish Arabic in English the
obelisk now functions as a meeting place
in the city taking in all who passed by
it is located just a few blocks from the
Friedrich C Onam the historically
primary venue of Documenta and
significantly the first publicly
accessible art museum in europe the
facade of the Friedrich C Onam is
typically inscribed with the name of the
building and gilded font but this year
Bhanu Chinna toll is being safe is scary
replace the traditional dedication a
line in Contemporary Art in its display
with contemporary politics I walked by
agwi Bay in Chinna toller’s work
repeatedly during my days in evenings in
Castle I read I was a stranger and you
took me in and being safe is scary
countless times considering the
political connections between the two
statements a desire for safety makes us
fear the stranger which is precisely the
argument put forth by our current
administration and their claim for the
travel ban this desire for safety
however
is also scary for it closes us off from
the stranger and from the unknown what
we should be scared of is maintaining
borders of exclusion where we may never
encounter what is foreign to us we must
keep borders open to allow for the
movement of bodies the free flow of
ideas and the exchanges of culture
movement allows us to breathe and to
breathe in another’s viewpoint art is
one such way for us to see the world
through another’s eyes however different
they may be art is just so absolutely
human in that way it is of us and
reflects us carrying the weight of
history and the anticipation of the
future within to see art in the service
of politics in our contemporary moment
is neither new nor extraordinary art has
always been there conversing with the
world sometimes silent other times
protestingly loud artists are the
translators and the messengers of our
shared environment
they show us that arts purpose is not
towards beauty and idealism but towards
the world in all its messy politics it
is our role as viewers to listen to that
art and to take in the stranger this is
what art at the service of politics aims
for I hear you and I accept you art
structures my worldview an institution
such as MoMA my artistic home have long
influenced my understanding of modernism
museums historically provide a space of
relief for quiet contemplation free from
the distractions of the world especially
during times of war and civil strife yet
museums and specifically arts have long
engaged with broader societal concerns
during these moments a political
conflict MoMA was the first major Art
Museum to respond to the u.s. travel ban
and others in the art world including
artists critics writers and curators
quickly followed by recognizing the
interwoven discourse of art and politics
we can move away from an isolationist
approach we must fight the impulse
towards exclusion and recognize what
artists have always told us what is
strange is not scary it is art
Art in New York City it is a place that
in many ways serves as my refuge from
the excessiveness of sensation one
encounters in midtown Manhattan I bend a
momen that a sense of home overcomes me
every time I walk up the escalators and
around corners I know exactly where I
will encounter Van Gogh’s Starry Night
arced by tourists snapping photos on
their phones to post to Instagram I cut
familiar paths through the carefully
curated rooms and my body tends to
absent mindedly track from Picasso to
Duchamp to Dali to Pollock to Warhol and
so on down the trailing lineage of
modern art the works on display on the
fifth floor of MoMA come from their
permanent collection until an au
standard story of the avant-garde with
attention on the radical and
experimental artists of the 20th century
here artworks are grouped according to
those avant-garde movements cubism Dada
surrealism Abstract Expressionism pop an
evolutionary model reinforced through
the movement of the visitors body from
room to room the chronological ordering
offers an easy entry point to modernism
as most arrive at MoMA with some
familiarity of those major movements the
interpretation of modernism presented by
MoMA is one I long accepted why would i
as a young art student or even a
youngish professor challenge MoMA
powerhouse of the art world the story
they tell through their display is when
I learned nodded with an agreement and
then repeated I pulled highlights from
their collection into my classroom I
reinforced the importance of Picasso in
Warhol above all others but in doing so
I excluded other voices outside of the
Canon however movement towards more
inclusion is taking place MoMA is not
the same institution today as it was 10
or even five years ago the art history I
study today is not the same I studied 10
years ago my classroom and my writing
are changing in response to shifting
political climates and debates
and news stories are being written about
the diversity of the art world I
witnessed firsthand this turn in thought
during my last visit to MoMA for
curators there recently reinstalled
sections of their permanent collection
in response to the presidential
executive order from February barring
citizens from seven countries from
entering the United States seemingly
overnight curators reinstalled select
rooms to incorporate work made by
artists from nations on that original
travel ban list beside each work is a
label that reads this work is by an
artist from a nation whose citizens have
been are are being denied entry into
United States due to recent presidential
executive orders the names on the labels
are ones that are not typically
encountered in MoMA’s permanent
collection galleries
Parvez tan Ivaldi iranian and canadian
Sharonda shahbazi iranian and german
tala Madani iranian and currently
working in los angeles ton Ivaldi for
example created the prophet in the early
1960s at a time when he freely traveled
between Tehran and Minneapolis without
travel restrictions he was able to
encounter another culture other voices
which helped shape his approach to art
making the relevance for our particular
moment is hard to miss had 10 have only
been working right now his body would
have been prohibited from crossing
borders the cross-cultural exchange
would have never happened
so rather than promoting art and artists
as isolated and nationalistic the
rearrangement shows a world of
connections and cross-cultural
discussions in doing so MoMA refutes the
current administration’s claim that
safety comes through cultural exclusion
and highlights the way that our is
always politically motivated politically
relevant and politically necessary
a few days after visiting MoMA I crossed
a series of borders to attend Documenta
a contemporary art event staged every
five years over the span of 100 days in
Kassel Germany in one of those
fascinating twists of fate I took the
same travel path I had in the summer of
1994 when I made my first solo overseas
trip age 16 I wasn’t too concerned with
my safety I certainly never gave pause
to consider how easily my passport was
granted to me and how effortlessly
I moved through customs and border
security but 23 years later again flying
from New York City to Frankfurt I was
acutely aware of my privilege as a
traveler across borders I freely moved
without disruption to my body
no one detained me questioned me at
length or flagged my identity rather I
sailed through passport control without
a second look as had always happened
before and why the only answer is the
color of my skin and the nationality of
my passport which allows me a shield of
freedom to move between spaces on my own
accord once in castle I wandered the
sprawling City home of Documenta since
1955 modern art needed new supporters in
the years after World War two especially
in Germany where the Nazi Party had
condemned any art not seen as beautiful
or ideal Documenta aimed to return a
positive status to modern art which the
Nazis had labeled degenerate art and
politics have thus from the beginning
been at the forefront of Documenta and
this year was no exception borders and
the movement of bodies was an
overarching theme throughout the
exhibitions Germany has welcomed over 1
million refugees since 2015 and much of
the art at Documenta acknowledged this
opening of borders although agree BAE’s
monument for strangers and refugees a
fifty four foot tall obelisk erected in
the public plaza bears the inscription I
was a stranger and you took me in
in German Turkish Arabic in English the
obelisk now functions as a meeting place
in the city taking in all who passed by
it is located just a few blocks from the
Friedrich C Onam the historically
primary venue of Documenta and
significantly the first publicly
accessible art museum in europe the
facade of the Friedrich C Onam is
typically inscribed with the name of the
building and gilded font but this year
Bhanu Chinna toll is being safe is scary
replace the traditional dedication a
line in Contemporary Art in its display
with contemporary politics I walked by
agwi Bay in Chinna toller’s work
repeatedly during my days in evenings in
Castle I read I was a stranger and you
took me in and being safe is scary
countless times considering the
political connections between the two
statements a desire for safety makes us
fear the stranger which is precisely the
argument put forth by our current
administration and their claim for the
travel ban this desire for safety
however
is also scary for it closes us off from
the stranger and from the unknown what
we should be scared of is maintaining
borders of exclusion where we may never
encounter what is foreign to us we must
keep borders open to allow for the
movement of bodies the free flow of
ideas and the exchanges of culture
movement allows us to breathe and to
breathe in another’s viewpoint art is
one such way for us to see the world
through another’s eyes however different
they may be art is just so absolutely
human in that way it is of us and
reflects us carrying the weight of
history and the anticipation of the
future within to see art in the service
of politics in our contemporary moment
is neither new nor extraordinary art has
always been there conversing with the
world sometimes silent other times
protestingly loud artists are the
translators and the messengers of our
shared environment
they show us that arts purpose is not
towards beauty and idealism but towards
the world in all its messy politics it
is our role as viewers to listen to that
art and to take in the stranger this is
what art at the service of politics aims
for I hear you and I accept you art
structures my worldview an institution
such as MoMA my artistic home have long
influenced my understanding of modernism
museums historically provide a space of
relief for quiet contemplation free from
the distractions of the world especially
during times of war and civil strife yet
museums and specifically arts have long
engaged with broader societal concerns
during these moments a political
conflict MoMA was the first major Art
Museum to respond to the u.s. travel ban
and others in the art world including
artists critics writers and curators
quickly followed by recognizing the
interwoven discourse of art and politics
we can move away from an isolationist
approach we must fight the impulse
towards exclusion and recognize what
artists have always told us what is
strange is not scary it is art
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