Artists Space Book & Talks in New York will be “transformed into a self-regulated commons” for Decolonize This Place, an active three-month series of community events, workshops and campaigns due to launch this weekend (17 September-17 December) that aims to “challenge the white supremacy that continues to characterise the economies and institutions of art”, according to a press release. The project has been organised by the politically-engaged arts collective MTL+ and is based on five central themes: indigenous struggle, Black liberation, free Palestine, global wage workers and de-gentrification. Groups slated to participate include the arts publication Hyperallergic, the Black Poets Speak Out group, the Bronx Not For Sale organisation and the Queens Anti-Gentrification Network. In addition to community gatherings such as meals, readings, screenings and skill-shares, participants will produce banners and posters to be shown in the gallery space and to use in political actions in the city in an on-site print station. A launch party is due to be held this Saturday, 17 September, and programming is planned to kick off the following day with Casbah, a screening and discussion of the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers. The goal of Decolonize This Place, according to the artist and activist Nitasha Dillon, a co-founder of MTL+, is “not to end art, but to unleash its powers of direct action and radical imagination”.
