Alanna Lockward

Photo: Miguel Gomez, 2016
Born	March 23, 1961(1961-03-23) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Died	January 7, 2019(2019-01-07) (aged 57) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Alanna Lockward (1961, Santo Domingo - 2019, Santo Domingo) was a journalist, ballet dancer, writer, filmmaker and contemporary art curator. She was the founding director of Art Labour Archives, a platform for theory, political activism and art since 1996. Lockward had conceptualized and curated the trans-disciplinary meeting BE.BOP (Black Europe Body Politics; 2012–2018). Her interests included Caribbean marronage discursive and mystical legacies in time-based practices, critical race theory, decolonial aesthetics/aesthesis, Black feminism and womanist ethics.

Lockward received her PhD from Humboldt University Berlin for her thesis on the Black Theology of Liberation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), following degrees in Art in Context at the University of the Arts Berlin, and Communications Science at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Mexico City (1979-1983). She was a Research Professor at the Center of Caribbean Studies, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) as well as a guest lecturer at the Decolonial Summer School Middelburg and Dutch Art Institute, the Netherlands; Malmö Art Academy, Sweden; University of the Arts, Humboldt University, and Transart Institute, Berlin.

Lockward was appointed Director of International Affairs at the Museo de Arte Moderno (Santo Domingo) (1988) and was designated as Selection Jury of the XX Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales (1996) and as award jury in its 26th edition (2011).

In 2016 she premiered her documentary film, Allen Report. Retracing Transnational African Methodism (FONPROCINE 2013), later nominated for the La Silla Awards (2017). This was the first Dominican film invited to the prestigious 24th New York African Film Festival (2017).

Lockward published Apremio: apuntes sobre el pensamiento y la creación contemporánea desde el Caribe (Cendeac, 2006), a collection of essays, the short novel Marassá and the Nothigness (Partridge Africa, 2016) and Un Haití Dominicano. Tatuajes fantasmas y narrativas bilaterales (1994-2014), a compilation of her investigative work on the history and current challenges between both island-nations (Santuario, 2014). Lockward edited BE.BOP 2012-2014. El cuerpo en el continente de la conciencia Negra (Ediciones del Signo, 2016), included in the series “El Desprendimiento” initiated and edited by Walter Mignolo from 2004. She was cultural editor of Listín Diario, research journalist for Rumbo magazine, a columnist for the Miami Herald and a columnist for Acento.com.do.

She was based in Berlin and Port-au-Prince, Dominican Republic.

Film

• Allen Report: Retracing Transnational African Methodism, 2016, 76 min. Documentary. [1] [2]

Publications

Books, journal issues, dissertations

• Apremio: Apuntes sobre el pensamiento y la creación contemporánea desde el Caribe [Pressure: Notes on Thought and Contemporary Creation from the Caribbean], Murcia: Cendeac, 2006, 212 pp. A compilation of Lockward's work as critic, drawn from Dominican (Cariforum, El Listín Diario), American (The Miami Herald), and Spanish (Atlántica) publications throughout the past ten years. [3]. Publisher. [4]. Reviews: Phaf-Rheinberger (Iberoamericana), García (Exit-Book). (Spanish)
• Schwarz-Black-Afro. Widerspiegelung eines Wortfeldes im Tagesspiegel 2004-2006, Berlin: Institut für Kunst im Kontext/Universität der Künste Berlin/Fakultät bildende Kunst, 2006, 52 pp. Master's thesis. [5] (German)
• Marassá y la nada, Santo Domingo, Rep. Dom.: Santuario, 2013, 103 pp. With illustrations by Gabriela Vainsencher. [6], [7]. Reviews: Maríñez (EN, ES), Stanley, Pérez, Régis. (Spanish)
  • Marassà and the Nothingness, Partridge Africa, 2016. A short novel.
• editor, with Keith Nurse, Caribbean Intransit 1(4): "Cutting Edges: New Media and Creative Entrepreneurship", African and African American Studies/George Mason University, Spring 2013. Introduction. [8]
• Un Haití dominicano: tatuajes fantasmas y narrativas bilaterales (1994-2014), Santo Domingo, Rep. Dom.: Santuario & Búho, 2014, 311 pp. A compilation of investigative work on the history and current challenges between both island-nations. Includes interviews, essays, and newspaper articles. [9]. Review: Rincon-Alba (e-misférica). (Spanish)
• El Sistema Elecotoral Dominicano en perspectiva comparada: garantias y falacias, Santo Domingo: Santuario, 2014. (Spanish)
• editor, BE.BOP 2012-2014: El cuerpo en el continente de la conciencia negra, Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Signo, 2016, 198 pp. TOC. [10] (Spanish)

Catalogues

• editor, Insight into Otherness, ArtCenter South Florida, 1997. (English)
• editor, 3 y 2, tres idos: seis instalaciones, Ciudad de México: Ex Teresa Arte Actual, 2000, 14 pp. Exhibition commissioned by the Dominican Embassy in Mexico City; held 25 Feb-25 Mar 2000 at Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City. [11] (Spanish)
• editor, Pares & Nones: Fotografía contemporánea de Haití y República Dominicana, La Habana: Casa de las américas, 2016, HTML. The exhibition toured internationally from 2002. Contains Lockward's essay "Pares & Nones: igualdad in-visible / Pares & Nones (Evens & Odds): Invisible Equality". The essay also appeared as "Pares & Nones (Evens & Odds): Invisible Equality", Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 11:3, Oct 2007, pp 83-92. [12]. (Spanish)/(English)
• editor, Filipa César. The Embassy, Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2011, [36] pp. [13]
• editor, with Walter Mignolo, BE.BOP 2012. Black Europe Body Politics, Berlin: Kultursprünge im Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2012, 38 pp. [14]. (English)
• editor, with Walter Mignolo, BE.BOP 2013. Black Europe Body Politics. Decolonizing the "Cold" War, Berlin: Kultursprünge im Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2013, 46 pp. [15]. (English)
• editor, with Jeannette Ehlers, BE.BOP 2014. Black Europe Body Politics. Spiritual Revolutions & The "Scramble for Africa", Berlin: Kultursprünge im Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2014, 43 pp. [16]. (English)
• editor, BE.BOP. Black Europe Body Politics. Chronology, 2012-2015, Berlin: Art Labour Archives, 2015, 44 pp. (English)
• editor, with Walter Mignolo, BE.BOP 2016. Black Europe Body Politics. Call & Response, Berlin: Art Labour Archives, 2016, 46 pp. [17], [18]. (English)
• editor, BE.BOP 2018. Black Europe Body Politics. Coalitions Facing White Innocence, Berlin: Art Labour Archives, 2018, 84 pp. [19]. (English)

Other curatorial projects without printed catalogue

• Días Hábiles. Noches Hábiles, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Santo Domingo, 2001. Video (14 min). [20].
• Truestories.Truesuccess, Freies Museum Berlin, 2009.

Poetry

• "Noticias de Clara", Vetas 3:23, Santo Domingo, Oct 1996. [21]

Essays, reviews

• "El exodo en Lincoln Road", el Nuevo Herald, 27 Dec 1994. Lockward's first art review, of the exhibition Exodus, curated by César Trasobares and James Herring at the Ground Level Gallery, Art Center South Florida, Miami, 1994. [22] (Spanish)
• "Edouard Duval-Carrié", ArtNexus: Arte en Colombia Internacional (Santafé de Bogotá) 65, Jan-Mar 1996, pp 60-62. (Spanish)
• "Fábulas abiertas”, un ejército periférico" / "“Fábulas abiertas”: An Exercise from the Periphery", Atlántica 16, Spring 1997, pp 34-37, 134-136. On author's first curated museum show. [23]. (Spanish)/(English)
• "El arte del Caribe y la alegoría del Elegguá", Atlántica 22, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, 1999, pp 99-102. (Spanish)
• "La era de la negritud / The Era of Négritude. The Short Century, Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994", Atlántica 30, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, 2001, pp 32-47; repr., Savvy 1, Berlin: Büro, 2016, pp 168-179. An expanded review of the The Short Century. Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994 exhibition, curated by Okwui Enwezor. [24], [25] [26]. (Spanish)/(English)
• "Carlos Betancourt y el cuerpo de la escritura / Carlos Betancourt: The Body of Writing", Atlántica 32, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, 2002, pp 102-111. (Spanish)/(English)
• "Los noventa en Santo Domingo: un anecdotario" [The Nineties in Santo Domingo], in Políticas de la diferencia: arte iberoamericano fin de siglo, Valencia: Generalitat Valenciana, 2001. Catalogue essay. (Spanish)
• "Elia Alba: Los quehaceres del agua" [Water's Endeavours], in Arte Contemporáneo Dominicano, Madrid: Casa de América-Turner, 2002. (Spanish)
• "Mónica Ferreras: La verticalidad del círculo" [The Verticality of the Circle], in Arte Contemporáneo Dominicano, Madrid: Casa de América-Turner, 2002, 66-71. (Spanish)
• "Charo Oquet: Una sirena en el reino de este mundo" [A Mermaid in the Kingdom of this World], in Arte Contemporáneo Dominicano, Madrid: Casa de América-Turner, 2002. (Spanish)
• "Meta archipielago teledirigido", Revista Cariforum 8, Jun 2002. (Spanish)
• "Identität des Schwindels", in Visa oder die Verhinderung des Reisens, ed. Beate Eckstein, Bonn: ifa Galerie, 2003. Catalogue essay. [27], [28]. (German)
• "The Era of Vertigo. Identities and the Ubiquity of Fear", Гуманитарные исследования 49:1, 2014, 171-175. (English)
• "Elia Alba; Nicolás Dumit Estévez" in Voces y Visiones. Highlights from El Museo Del Barrio's Permanent Collection, New York: Museo del Barrio, 2003, pp 16-24. Two catalogue essays. (English)
• "Nadja Schöllhammer: An Arena of Her Own", in Nadja Schöllhammer: Arena, Berlin: Momentum, 2004. Catalogue essay. (English)
• "Sobre la verdadera autonomía del libre albedrió / On the true autonomy of the free will", Art.es 10, Jul/Aug 2005, p 75. (Spanish)/(English)
• "Minette Vari and a Continental Patience. Africa in the Venice Biennial History", 2007. www.videoartworld.com/beta/reviews_int.php?id=61
• "Stages of a Panic-Curator: My Catharsis with the Holy Infant of Prague (aka Nicolas Dumit Estevez)", New York: Franklin Furnace, Sep 2007. (English)
• "Disolvencias y yuxtaposiciones: ecos para un relato polifónico en materia de videoarte desde Haití, Puerto Rico y República Dominicana", in Vídeo en Latinoamérica: una historia crítica: primavera 2008, ed. Laura Baigorri Ballarín, Madrid: Brumaria, 2008, pp 81-90. [29] (Spanish)
  • "Towards a Utopian Archeology: Moving-image, Decolonization and Continuities in Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic", Sep 2010. (English)
• "Lo(a) natural(eza) del Performance. Performance y/en Naturaleza (I / Videoarte)" / "The Naturalness of Performance. Performance and/in Nature (I / Video-art)", in Naturaleza intervenida: reflexiones sobre la Naturaleza, el medio ambiente y nuevas tecnologías, Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía/Consejería de Cultura, 2008, pp 8-21, 66-68. Catalogue essay. (Spanish)/(English)
• essay in Nostalgia de futuro. Homenaje a Josep Renau, Valencia: Consorcio de Museosde la Comunidad Valenciana, 2008. Catalogue essay. (Spanish)
• "La sombra de Elena Rendeiro / The Shadow of Elena Rendeiro", in Elena Rendeiro: Offline, Málaga: Galeria Isabel Hurley, 2009. Catalogue essay. (Spanish)/(English)
• "Paul Pfeiffer: The Saints. Hamburger Bahnhof", Artecontexto 25, Madrid, 2010, pp 88-89. Exhibition review. [30] (English)/(Spanish)
• "6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporay Art: Colonizing Resistance / VI Bienal de Arte Contemporánero de Berlín. Colonizar la resistencia", Artecontexto 27, Madrid, 2010, 98-99. Review. [31] (English)/(Spanish)
• "Alfredo Cramerotti. Aesthetic Journalism", Artecontexto 28, Madrid, Sep 2010, pp 90, 92. Book review. [32] (Spanish)/(English)
• "Nataša Drakula. Removing the Visible", Berlin, 30 Sep 2010. Exhibition text. (English)
• "Decolonizing Germany: Wild at Hair. IngridMwangiRobertHutter. Masks and Skin Politics as a German Decolonial Knowledge-Production", Reartikulacija 10-13, eds. Marina Grzinic and Sebastjan Leban, Ljubljana: Society for Contemporary Creativity HCHO, 2010, pp 23-24. (English)
• with Dalida María Benfield, Raúl Moarquech Ferrera Balanquet, Pedro Pablo Gómez, and Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, "Décolonialité et expérience esthétique: une approximation", trans. Jérôme Delgado, Inter: art actuel 111: "Espace public", 2012, pp 35-39. (French)
• "Black Europe Body Politics: Towards an Afropean Decolonial Aesthetics", in Decolonial AestheSis, eds. Walter Mignolo and Rolando Vázquez, Social Text, Jul 2013.
• "Con la música por dentro: una lectura decolonial de la 26 Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales" / "Music from Within: A Decolonised Interpretation of the 26th National Biennial of Visual Arts", in 26 Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales: Santo Domingo 2011, Santo Domingo: Museo de Arte Moderno, 2013. (Spanish)/(English)
• "La erotización de la historia en Serenata", in Un instante de certidumbre: la obra narrativa de Manuel Salvador Gautier, ed. Isael Pérez, Santo Domingo, Rep. Dom.: Santuario, 2014.
• "Black Europe Body Politics: Towards an African Colonial Aesthetics", in Afroeuropean Cartographies, ed. I.D. Thomas, Newcastle upon Thyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp 132-146. (English)
• "Unveiling the Whip: Decoloniality and the 'Unintended Liberating Dimension' of Enslavement", in Truth Is Concrete: A Handbook for Artistic Strategies in Real Politics, eds. steirischer herbst and Florian Malzacher, Berlin: Sternberg Press, and Graz: steirischer herbst, 2014, 86-95. (English)
• "Arte desde Saint-Dominique: ecos diasporicos en el 'continente de la conciencia Negra'" [Saint Domingue Kins in the Continent of Black Consciousness"], in Trenzando una Historia en Curso: Arte Contemporáneo Dominicano en el Contexto del Caribe, Santiago De Los Treinta Caballeros: Centro León & JP Morgan, 2014, pp 181-238. (Spanish)
• "Decolonising the (White) Gaze, 1/4: Who Is Whipping? / Dekolonisierung des (weißen) Blicks, 1/4. Wer peitscht?", trans. Wilfried Prantner, Camera Austria International 125, 2014, pp 65-66. Column. [33] (English)/(German)
• "Decolonising the (White) Gaze, 2/4: Gordon Parks’s Whip and the “Unintended Liberating Dimension” of Enslavement / Dekolonisierung des (weißen) Blicks, 2/4. Gordon Parks' Peitsche und die »ungewollt befreiende Dimension« der Versklavung", trans. Wilfried Prantner, Camera Austria International 126, 2014, pp 65-66. Column. [34] (English)/(German)
• "Decolonising the (White) Gaze, 3/4: Healing Sara Bartman in the “Continent of Black Consciousness” / Dekolonisierung des (weißen) Blicks, 3/4. Die Heilung Sara Baartmans auf dem Kontinent schwarzen Bewusstseins", trans. Wilfried Prantner, Camera Austria International 127, 2014, pp 65-66. Column. [35] (English)/(German)
• "Decolonising the (White) Gaze, 4/4: Where Is (De)Coloniality? / Dekolonisierung des (weißen) Blicks, 4/4. Wo ist (De)Kolonialität?", trans. Wilfried Prantner, Camera Austria International 128, 2014, pp 65-66. Column. [36] (English)/(German)
• "Nicolás Dumit Estévez, C Room. Vodoun and Carnival in Nicolás Dumit Estévez's C Room: a maroon reading", in En mas': Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean, eds. Claire Tancons and Krista Thompson, New York: Independent Curators International, and New Orleans: Contemporary Arts Center, 2015. (English)
• "Blesi Doub. Heridas Dobles. Dual Wounds", e-misférica 12(1): "Rasanblaj caribéen", ed. Gina Athena Ulysse, 2015. Multimedia text devoted to Haitian-Dominican poet Jacques Viau Renaud. [37] (English)
• "Spirituelle revolutioner. Afropæiske kropspolitikker og kunstens 'sekularisering'", Kultur & klasse 43(119): "Mellem Eurafrika og Afropa", eds. M.A. Baggesgaard and S. Jonsson, 2015, pp 161-190. (Danish)
  • "Spiritual Revolutions: Afropean Body Politics and the “Secularity” of the Arts", in Regimes of Invisibility in Contemporary Art, Theory and Culture: Image, Racialization, History, eds. Marina Gržinić, Aneta Stojnić, and Miško Šuvaković, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp 103-122. [38] (English)
• "Striving for Self-Education, Consciousness and Knowledge. A Dialogue with Jeannette Ehler", in Jeannette Ehlers: Say It Loud!, eds. Lotte Løvholm and Ida Højgaard Thjømøe, Copenhagen: Nemo, 2016. [39] (English)
• "Recio, Raúl (1965- )", in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, eds. Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Oxford University Press, 2016. [40] (English)
• "Oquet, Charo (1952- )", in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, eds. Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Oxford University Press, 2016. [41] (English)
• "Willmore, Martha (Leticia) (1928- )", in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, eds. Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Oxford University Press, 2016. [42] (English)
• "Politique du corps dans l’Europe noire. Vers une esthétique afropéenne décoloniale", Tumultes 48:1, 2017, pp 103-115. [43] (French)
• "Blesi Doub, Heridas Dobles, Dual wounds: Re-writing the Island", in The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Politics, eds. Olivia Rutazibwa and Robbie Shilliam, Routledge, 2018, pp 431-440. (English)
• essay in Karen Miranda Rivadeneira, Other Stories / Historia Bravas, London: Autograph, 2018. [44] (English)/(Spanish)
• "Kalimán", in Sin pasar por go: narrativa dominicana contemporánea, ed. Rita Indiana, Ciudad de México: Elefanta, 2018. (Spanish)

Interviews

• Caroline Trouillet, "Une afropéanité décoloniale, un regard caribéen", Africultures 99-100, 2014, pp 330-335. [45] (French)
• more

Links

• Personal website
• Art Labour Archives
• Video lectures
• Academia.edu
• Obituaries: Transart Institute, Ella Milburn (The Independent), Artforum.
• Wikipedia