Shakir Ali, “Flying birds and flowers”, 1967, oil on canvas.
Simone Wille, Przemysław Strożek, Aleksei Borisionok, Dr Vít Havránek and Miloslav Vorlíček
The Lidice Art Collection (LAC), in partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts Prague (AVU), is presenting an evening of conversation on the occasion of the Czech book launch of Simone Wille's "Cold War Art Worlds: South Asian Art and Artists in Prague, 1947–1989" (Leuven University Press, 2025). The book examines the circulation of South Asian artists and artworks through Prague during the Cold War period, 1947–1989.
The conversation brings together three scholars whose research engages directly with the book's themes of transregional modernism, solidarity collections, and Cold War cultural politics. Simone Wille is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Art History at the University of Innsbruck. Przemysław Strożek is an Associate Researcher and Curator at the Archive of Avant-gardes at the Dresden State Collections, and a member of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Aleksei Borisionok is a curator, writer, and organiser based in Vienna, a member of the artistic-research group Problem Collective and the Work Hard! Play Hard! working group, and currently a fellow at the Vera List Centre in New York. He served as a curator of the Matter of Art Biennale 2024 in Prague. Dr Vít Havránek, Vice-Rector for Partnerships and International Affairs at AVU, will introduce the event, and Miloslav Vorlíček, Curator and Registrar at LAC, will moderate.
"Cold War Art Worlds: South Asian Art and Artists in Prague, 1947–1989" is the outcome of Wille's FWF-funded research project “South Asia in Central Europe: The Mobility of Artists and Art Works between 1947 and 1989”, conducted at the University of Innsbruck. The book situates LAC within a broader and largely uncharted history of transregional Cold War cultural exchange, recovering the networks through which South Asian modernism entered Central European institutional and public life. A painting by Shakir Ali from LAC features on the book's cover, making this presentation a significant moment for LAC's public profile.
The Lidice Art Collection was established through solidarity and continues to grow as a public resource for research, exhibitions, and education. This event extends LAC's commitment to public programmes that illuminate the collection's role in histories of Cold War artistic exchange and international solidarity. The event will be held in English only and recorded for the Lidice Art Collection's YouTube channel.
