ABSTRACT
This joint chapter reflects on Piotrowski’s attempt to produce a ‘horizontal art history’ for peripheries, in the context of the ‘The Afterlife of Socialism and Apartheid in Art and Art History of Central Europe and South Africa’ project. The study area lies in naming the art historical common denominators between state socialist societies and apartheid totalitarian regimes. We begin by interrogating Piotrowski’s text: ‘East European Art Peripheries facing Post-Colonial Theory’ and its ramifications for our study, focusing on Piotrowski’s argument that postcolonial discourse has only limited application for postsocialist art history. We argue that there are enough similarities in both circumstance and approach that similar enquiry methods can be utilized for both geographic regions The nomenclature does not undermine the fact that artists react to totalitarianism with a longing for a real (or metaphorical) attainment of an equal society, or a critique on the social and political shortfalls that negate this end result. Considering this overlap, we interrogate the viability of our comparative study and offer a possible methodological manifesto by which we can work towards a version of Piotrowski’s ‘horizontal art history’.
