Critical Seeing of Neo-Orientalism in Contemporary Art

Not everything you were told is Art, is Art. Sometimes it’s smart anti-intellectualism disguised as an exciting product.

While Western powers with colonial backgrounds have come to depend on forceful hybridisation - using performative and often violent mixing of identities to artificially diversify and moralize their politics, art, and culture - the “East” has long been inherently diverse, multiethnic, multireligious, and multicultural. It is therefore home to refinement, abstraction, and complex artistic differentiations. The East possessed its own powerful place within the global history of art long before Western thinkers imagined it as exotic, “unaware of itself,” or merely an aesthetically useful tool for politics. This seminar traces the shift from self-representation to colonized image-making, and examines how this history continues to shape global contemporary art.

The course juxtaposes capitalist neo-Orientalism in contemporary art with contemporary self-representation in Iran and pre-colonial Hindustan. Using accessible language, we will introduce Edward Said’s defining theory of Orientalism, explore depictions of the “East” in the 19th century, and conclude with contemporary artworks that either critically engage with this legacy or unintentionally reproduce it.

Artists such as Shirin Neshat, Shahzia Sikandar, Anish Kapoor alongside selected references from Media will serve as case studies for critical discussion.

Schedule

13.06.2026, 9:00-17:00 (Introduction, Presentation by Tara, Break, Reading, Discussion)

14.06.2026, 11:00-19:00 (Presentation by Tara Coffee Break, Exhibition Visit)

20.06.2026, 9:00-17:00 (Lecture by Priyam, Break, Reading, Break, Discussion)

21.06.2026, 11:00-19:00 (Presentation by Tara, Open Discussion)

Tara Habibzadeh is an art and philosophy person.
Instagram: @kamikaze.labyrinthe

 

Credit: (“Make a shampoo advertisement as followingxxx” prompt. ChatGPT, 28 Nov. version, OpenAI, 5.1) conducted by Tara Habibzadeh 2025