Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War

The exhibition is devoted to the global dimension of cultural politics in the Cold War and to the changing meanings and aims assigned to modernism. Departing from an examination of the interdependencies between the political and aesthetic struggles of the era, the exhibition reflects the ideological foundations of the conflict lines of today’s global contemporary art.

The friction between the political use of art and artists’ striving for autonomy is the focus of the exhibition. The artworks and archival materials on show explore the ideological contradictions and echoes of the postwar U.S. “freedom offensive.”