Omar Kholeif and Michael Rakowitz
In this keynote conversation, two friends and long-time collaborators come together to discuss how their divergent practices as artist and curator, as historians and makers, have influenced the ways in which they individually construct their own specific concept of solidarity. The discussion will begin with a reflection by Kholeif, which aims to argue that Rakowitz's artistic practice operates as an act of historical making and unmaking, proposing a methodology for seeing the world through the lens of decoloniality. The conversation will explore hidden histories recited by unreliable narrators. Together, they will explore the possibilities of unfurling and decoding one's personal biography through the practice of art. The duo will untangle notions of imperialism, situating the discussion around Rakowitz's project The invisible enemy should not exist (Lamassu of Nineveh) (2018), which was on view on the Fourth Plinth of London's Trafalgar Square from 2018 to 2020. Restitution and reclamation, disappearance and memory, failure and principle, come together to conclude a conversation that seeks to propose alternative methods for looking – ones that may lead to the formation of a new visuality.