Monday, May 28th, 2018, 7pm
The Phantoms of Collecting
HEAD – Genève, Boulevard Helvétique 9, 1205 Genève, seminar room 27, 2nd floor
Credits: Courtesy of the artist, photo: Tony Hafkenscheid
Kader Attia’s talk will consist of two parts: first, the screening of a film showing a series of interviews that he realized on the question of the return of artifacts stolen from former colonized countries, and currently stored in western museums. “It is interesting for me to show this work in Switzerland, because even if the country did not possess any colonies, it still has gathered extensive ethnological collections, in Neuchâtel, Geneva, Zurich…” Then, from representation to action, this screening will be completed by a lecture about La Colonie’s activities, and more specifically a symposium on the issue of the return of African artifacts taking place there on the 12th of September: “It is very important for me to explain how La Colonie is an area to experiment in action the ethic I am trying to develop through this series of films, especially the one dealing with the return of objects: like the symposium we are preparing called “The Collection of Injuries” next September.” The case of the return of the Greek antiquities, for which Greece has been fighting for over a century but more actively for decades also will be explored during this talk, as an example of the forms of crypto-colonialism implemented by Western countries, in particular after their colonies’ independences — because there is a political extension of collecting ethnographic artifacts and Greek archeology.