ST. LOUIS, MO.- The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis presents Stories of Resistance, a major group exhibition that explores artistic forms of resistance from across the world. Through visual narratives, the artists amplify and bring to focus the multitude of conditions that ignite and inspire people to resist. Resistance emerges from both within and outside of governmental, corporate, or institutional structures and systems of power. It takes shape in labor movements, protests, and in speaking out about injustice. Resistance is as loud as shouts, drums, and mass marches in the streets, and as quiet as hands sifting through archives, recovering and rewriting histories that had been erased. Stories of Resistance is on view from March 12 through August 15, 2021.
St. Louis serves as an ideal platform for Stories of Resistance. Resistance movements that have arisen here, most especially the rise of Black Lives Matter in response to the police killing of Michael Brown, have incited global actions against racism and injustice. By looking through a local lens, the exhibition draws connections worldwide, revealing profound influences that traverse borders and cultures—Black Lives Matter forms in the wake of the Arab Spring, for example, and years after, Black Lives Matter influences Hong Kong’s resistance movement. Weaving together themes from the exhibition, Radio Resistance, an integral component of Stories of Resistance, present conversations between artists in the exhibition and artists, activists, scholars, and others with a deep knowledge and experience of St. Louis.
The exhibition activates the entire museum space, inside and out, with video, photography, drawing, sculpture, painting, and installation. Artists present figurative, symbolic, representational, and abstract narratives from many social, political, and geographical spaces. They include: Bani Abidi, Andrea Bowers, Banu Cennetoğlu, Torkwase Dyson, Glenn Kaino, Bouchra Khalili, Candice Lin, Jen Liu, Guadalupe Maravilla, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Trevor Paglen, PSA:, Wendy Red Star, Dread Scott, Kemang Wa Lehulere, and Wide Awakes (Maryam Parwana, Combo, Otherward).
The exhibition is but one of three essential parts to Stories of Resistance. The exhibition is accompanied by the aforementioned Radio Resistance, a series of interviews released every other week throughout the duration of the exhibition. Because of radio’s legacy as an organizing tool to voice dissent and disseminate information, ideas, and culture to a broad audience, it will serve as the medium for broadcasting dialogue between intersecting local and global agents of change. Alongside the exhibition and radio program, a CAM publication includes images of works in the exhibition and writings that further explore and expand on the ideas and themes of Stories of Resistance.
The exhibition and accompanying catalog are generously supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Additional publication support is provided by Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
Stories of Resistance is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by
Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator, with Misa Jeffereis, Assistant Curator. Radio Resistance is co-produced by Michelle Dezember, Director of Learning and Engagement, and Al-Khudhairi with Jeffereis.
