Moving Monuments: Public Sculpture and Racist Cultural Infrastructure

Hamza Walker (Dir. of LAXART) & Prof. Kristin Ann Hass (Uni. of Michigan).

This public seminar brings together two leading voices in international debates on the politics and power of monumental sculpture. Professor Kristin Ann Hass (University of Michigan) will be presenting her new ground-breaking book Blunt Instruments: Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums and Patriotic Practices (2022), that helps readers identify and contextualize how art and culture contribute to normalize racist ideas and values.

Curator and Director of LAXART, Hamza Walker, will discuss the curatorial process behind the forthcoming exhibition MONUMENTS that features decommissioned Confederate monuments together with newly commissioned contemporary art works that he is co-curating with the renowned artist Kara Walker and curator Bennett Simpson, scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 at LAXART and MOCA in Los Angeles.

The seminar is organized by the research project Moving Monuments: The Material Life of Sculpture from the Danish Colonial Era (University of Copenhagen) in collaboration with KORO: Public Art Norway’s program Kuratorpraksis + Kunst i offentlig rom.

The seminar is free and open to all. For questions, please contact Professor of Art History at University of Copenhagen Mathias Danbolt (danbolt@hum.ku.dk).