Have We Met?

Have We Met: Dialogues on Memory and Desire draws inspiration from Ann Arbor’s legacy of social movements (Anti-War Movement, Civil Rights Movements) and experimental art practices (The Once Group) from the late-1950s to the 1970s as its point of departure. It brings together archival materials and reproductions from the University of Michigan’s Labadie Collection and the Bentley Library in conjunction with radical artworks by diverse, multi-generational artists and designers whose works are deeply influenced by the ideas of freedom and self-determination; re-writing the canonical accounts of history; and building contemporary culture and solidarity through collective action.

At a time when the idea of citizenship in the United States is being deeply challenged and redefined through horrific occurrences of gun violence and police brutality towards racialized and queer civilians and refugees, this exhibition asks what role art institutions can play in building inclusive and vibrant creative spaces the 21^st Century. Have We Met? Dialogues on Memory and Desire retraces and learns from models of collectivity and organizing mobilized by artists, designers, and cultural producers in the past and present as a lens to understand the contemporary moment and re-imagine the future. It explores the complex relationships and at times overlapping and contested concerns between contemporary art, design, and social justice that continually influence and inform one another.

Have We Met? Dialogues on Memory and Desire inaugurates the second year of programs at the Stamps Gallery. This exhibition is the first in a series of exhibitions that will mine local histories inside and outside the Academy and explore the agency of artists, designers and the cultural institution in the 21^st Century. 

Have We Met? Dialogues on Memory and Desire is a For Freedoms Federation exhibition. For Freedoms exhibitions engage local perspectives on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: affirming the inalienable human rights of freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Artists: Rudolf Baranik, Stephanie Dinkins, Emory Douglas, Brendan Fernandes, Chitra Ganesh, Carole Harris, Maren Hassinger, Al Loving, Josh MacPhee, Native Art Department International, Michele Oka Doner, Yoko Ono, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Martha Rosler, Buster Simpson, Gregory Sholette, Leni Sinclair, Stephanie Syjuco, Graem Whyte, and Zafos Xagoraris.

Curated by Srimoyee Mitra.