Soft Power
Soft Power
Spring Summer 2026
In times of conflict and imposed power structures, artists tell stories of different worlds and alternative narratives. They do not represent the world from a single perspective: they narrate it from multiple viewpoints, with their ability to subvert perceptions and connect differences, participating in processes of cultural transformation.
Róisín Tapponi
Portrait by Alessandro Raimondo
In times of conflict and imposed power structures, artists tell stories of different worlds and alternative narratives.
They do not represent the world from a single perspective: they narrate it from multiple viewpoints, with their ability to subvert perceptions and connect differences, participating in processes of cultural transformation.
With five portrait covers, featuring Sung Tieu, Cao Fei, Christelle Oyiri, Tabita Rezaire, Róisín Tapponi, an incredibly rich board of authors, and over 420 pages, CURA.46 Soft Power presents the artists who are redefining the geographies of art today, actively intervening in the collective imagination not only through speculative or futuristic aesthetics, but across a variety of media. Artists who embody the ability of art to build worlds, dismantling dominant paradigms through new storylines and the possibility of reinterpreting the past or imagining possible futures: techno-cultural and postcolonial identities, decolonial futures, and speculative imaginaries capable of developing alternative visions intertwine with the memory of home, family experience, and history.
Artists
Sung Tieu, Cao Fei, Ayoung Kim, Meriem Bennani, Farah Al Qasimi, Dorota Gawęda/Eglė Kulbokaitė, Tolia Astakhishvili, Lydia Ourahmane, Melike Kara, Precious Okoyomon, Diamond Stingily, Sandra Mujinga, Tabita Rezaire, Christelle Oyiri, Ruba Karabekian, Li Yi-Fan, Janiva Ellis, Mawena Yehouessi, Sadaf H Nava.
Contributors
Dan Rees, Christopher Williams-Wynn, Xue Tan, Ruba Katrib, Ruth Gebreyesus, Sarah Johanna Theurer, Alvin Li, Fabio Cherstich, Myriam Ben Salah, Jamieson Webster, Coumba Samba, Nikita Sena Quarshie, Mariam Elnozahy, Martha Kirszenbaum, Róisín Tapponi, Nora N. Khan, Mohamed Almusibli, Rosanna Puyol Boralevi, Laura McLean-Ferris.
Contents
Sung Tieu
Texts by Dan Rees and Christopher Williams-Wynn
Cao Fei
in conversation with Xue Tan
Ayoung Kim
Text by Ruba Katrib
Farah Al Qasimi
Meriem Bennani
Text by Ruth Gebreyesus
Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė
Text by Sarah Johanna Theurer
Tolia Astakhishvili
Text by Alvin Li
Lydia Ourahmane
in conversation with Fabio Cherstich
Melike Kara
in conversation with Myriam Ben Salah
Precious Okoyomon
in conversation with Jamieson Webster
Diamond Stingily
in conversation with Coumba Samba
Sandra Mujinga
Text by Nikita Sena Quarshie
Tabita Rezaire
Text by Mariam Elnozahy
Christelle Oyiri
Text by Martha Kirszenbaum
Ruba Karabekian
Text by Róisín Tapponi
Li Yi-Fan
in conversation with Nora N. Khan
Janiva Ellis
Text by Mohamed Almusibli
Mawena Yehouessi
Text by Rosanna Puyol Boralevi
Sadaf H Nava
in conversation with Laura Mclean-Ferris