Abdelkader Lagtaâ and His Conceptual Exercises in Poland, 1972–74

Abstract:This article focuses on conceptual practices by Moroccan artist Abdelkader Lagtaâ, whose early 1970s work, created as a part of Polish conceptual milieus in Łódź and Warsaw, remains undocumented in art-historical scholarship. The author rediscovers Lagtaâ's practices as part of conceptual strategies in Eastern Europe and discusses his work in relation to Okwui Enwezor's article "Where, What, Who, When: A Few Notes on 'African' Conceptualism." The author argues that while Enwezor and, later, other scholars, including Olu Oguibe and Salah M. Hassan, critique the work by African conceptualists to and through conceptualist strategies prevalent in Africa and the West, Lagtaâ's work was almost entirely situated in the linguistic, performative, new media, and mail art experiments characteristic of Eastern Europe. While the work of conceptual artists from the African continent identified by Enwezor remained on the margins, outside of international and noninstitutional artistic circuits, Lagtaâ's work was an intrinsic part of the early 1970s collective experiments and transnational networks of artistic exchange between Eastern Europe and other geographical regions.