October 21 – 24th, 2020 | Online
Decolonizing Museum Cultures and Collections: Mapping Theory and Practice in East-Central Europe
International conference for heritage scholars and practitioners
The conference is an online event aimed at mapping the range of decolonial approaches to museum collections and practices in East-Central Europe.
In recent years, the debate over ‘decolonization’ has reinvigorated the museum and heritage sector globally, with a range of intensities and agendas. International organizations are being called on to reshape cultural institutions, to reorganize knowledge production and recognize its diverse forms, to share power and authority, to account for multiple perspectives, and to confront historical injustice in museum cultures, practices, structures, narratives, and collections.
Post- and decolonial approaches already have a strong foothold in post-socialist Eastern European scholarship and public discourse with regard to the legacies of Russian/Soviet, German/Nazi, Habsburg, Polish, and Ottoman imperialisms. But in practice, the impact of decolonial critique has been limited to temporary interventions rather than more sustainable heritage methods and strategies.
Similarly, the rediscovery of 19th and 20th-century entanglements among East-Central Europe, Asia, and the Global South by historians have been only weakly echoed in the museum sector. Overseas collections in East-Central European museums call for special attention with regard to both their histories and futures.
The conference will be held on Zoom with a daily program scheduled from ca. 1 pm to 9 pm CEST (Warsaw) so that it should be accessible to participants from different time zones. All you need to participate is to register yourself in advance and join us using your own device.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Welcome to conference on decolonizing museums in East-Central Europe
The conference program includes
four roundtables:
- Curating Polish Patriotism ‘Otherwise’: Queering and Racializing August Agbola O’Browne
- Curatorial Dreams from (Polish) Museum Outsiders
- Diverse Perspectives from Implicated Communities
- Decolonizing Museums: A Global Perspective
as well as research paper sessions:
- Histories of Collecting
- Histories of Exhibitions
- Reframing Africa
- Reframing Europe
- Critical Curating
- Holocaust and Decoloniality
- (Post)communism and Decoloniality
There will be also two special events:
- a discussion of the ECHOES project report on practicing decoloniality in museums
- a pre-event debate with Polish museum professionals curating non-European collections, organized in cooperation with the Museum of Asia and Pacific in Warsaw
not to mention evening networking rooms.
We decided to ask the speakers for shorter, more condensed presentations (of up to 10 minutes) to create a situation in which there will still be a room for discussion, which will allow our audience to engage in conversation.
about the speakers
Paper presenters, roundtable speakers and panel chairs
The conference will be an opportunity to meet more than 50 speakers dealing with colonial pasts in museums and heritage sites in East-Central Europe. Some of them will present their own papers, some others will take part in roundtables. Among them there are scholars, curators, cultural activists and visual artists.
We are overjoyed to have with us initiators of intellectual debates: Nicholas Boston, Carine Durand, Léuli Eshrāghi, Quinsy Gario, Rado Ištok, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Erica Lehrer, James Mark, Wayne Modest, Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak, Karol Radziszewski, Naomi Recollet, Cynthia Schimming, Joanna Warsza, Jürgen Zimmerer.
Find out more about them and engage in a common conversation about the decolonial.
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