The Academy of the Arts of the World (ADKDW) is supported by a global collective that brings its diverse perspectives and artistic practices to the work of the Academy. Academy members - national and international artists, curators, writers, scholars, and cultural practitioners - function as an interdisciplinary think tank. - The Academy welcomes its new Academy members Petrit Halilaj, Nanette Snoep and Gary Zhexi Zhang!
Petrit Halilaj's work is closely linked to the recent history of his native Kosovo and the consequences of cultural and political tensions in the region, which he often uses as a starting point to spark opposing poetics for the future. Rooted in his biography, his projects span a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, text, and performance. He often uses materials from Kosovo and manifests them as ambitious spatial installations, translating personal relationships, places, and people into sculptural forms.
Nanette Jacomijn Snoep is a Dutch anthropologist and cultural manager who worked at various European museums after studying in Paris. Before her appointment as director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne in 2019, she was involved in the development of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, among other projects. Most recently, she directed the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony in Leipzig, Dresden, and Herrnhut. - The current carnival project, kaɦ.na.vˈaw Spirituality, Economy, and Politics, is the first substantive collaboration between the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and the Academy the Arts of the World.
Gary Zhexi Zhang explores the connections between cosmology, technology, and economics. He is the editor of Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press), a book of fiction, essays, and interviews to be published in September 2023. Dead Cat Bounce, an oratorio he created with Waste Paper Opera, will premiere at Somerset House in 2022. His last solo exhibition, Cycle 25, documented events that blur the lines between speculative belief and the material world, such as natural disasters, fraud nations, and cosmic economies. In 2023, Zhang will present new works at York University Art Gallery and the Sea Art Festival in Busan.
