Paul Gardullo

The exhibition is really a large project I would like to suggest in reckoning, a large project in transformational justice that is masquerading as an exhibition. […] The first thing it does is help us recognize that this history is not relegated to any one place or space, but is a global story that shapes our world. The second connection that it demands is one that says, this is not something that’s out of the past, but it is very much connected to our lives in the present. And then the third and maybe the most important thing that it does is demand that we look at this history not simply through a lens of exploitation or subjugation or violence, although all of those things are true about this history and its legacies, but that we must look at this also through the lens of freedom. And when you look at this history through the lens of freedom, especially through the freedom-making practices of Black folks around the world, you immediately have a different resonance and understanding of what freedom means. This is what this exhibition promises to bring to the world in terms of a new kind of storytelling.