Stealing (as) Art. Performances of Restitution from Mwazulu Diyabanza to Frankfurter Hauptschule

Abstract

Restitution, the returning of art works and objects collected under colonial regimes, still is a fictitious act. In the restitution debate, declarations of intent as made by the French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017 have been among the most radical acts so far – at least in politics. In pop culture and the arts, restitution has come to be imagined more and more radically in the recent past. In line with a more general trend of art activism, artists have also turned to enactments of restitution by symbolically stealing looted or colonialist art. In this comment piece, I analyze two different examples of art activism on restitution – actions by Mwazulu Diyabanza and Frankfurter Hauptschule. In my analysis, I address both aesthetic and ethical questions of positionality, artistic agency and the western gaze.