Shaping the Past builds connections and showcases patterns that constitute a transnational memory culture at work to address systemic racism and sexism, social and economic exclusion, and legacies of colonial and state violence. This poster exhibition features works by artists, activists, and collectives from North America and Germany — all part of the Monument Lab Fellows Program. This exhibition broadens understandings and illuminates ongoing memory interventions that reimagine civil society.
The spotlighted projects offer innovative and reparative models that highlight creative changemakers who are actively shaping the past and our paths forward. Part of a titular project begun in 2019, Shaping the Past will be presented by Goethe-Instituts across North America between June and November 2021.
Featured Artists: Monument Lab Fellows, 2019 & 2020 Cohorts, memory workers throughout North America and Germany with existing projects using art, activism, history, journalism, and other tools to approach monuments in their communities.
Ulf Aminde – Berlin and Cologne, Germany
Kanyinsola Anifowoshe – Chicago, USA
Tomie Arai – New York, USA
Free Egunfemi Bangura – Richmond, USA
Arielle Brown – Philadelphia, USA
Sergio Beltrán-García – Mexico City, Mexico
Zyahna Bryant – Charlottesville, US
Cheyenne Concepcion – San Francisco, USA
Ada Pinkston – Baltimore, USA
Joel Garcia – Los Angeles, USA
A Long Walk Home’s Girl/Friends – Chicago, USA
Hadi Al Khatib – Berlin, Germany
Thalia Fernández Bustamante – San Francisco Xochicuautia, Mexico
Alisha B. Wormsley – Pittsburgh, USA
Take Action Chapel Hill – Chapel Hill, USA
M.A.D.A.D. – St Louis, USA
Patrick Weems – Sumner, USA
Quentin Vercetty Lindsay – Montreal and Toronto, Canada
Shaping the Past is produced in partnership with the Goethe-Institut, Monument Lab, and the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education).