A mirrored image on colonialism and its penalties till as we speak within the coronary heart of Europe | Culture | EUROtoday

How far does the hint of the colonialist previous lengthen in as we speak’s Europe? Does it nonetheless have an effect on daily life? How ought to museums confront the colonialism impregnated in so many works they exhibit, a lot of them the results of plunder? Should they even tackle it? And society? Should we apologize for the previous? Is it sufficient to hunt reconciliation? In the center of the EU, within the House of European History in Brussels, the exhibition Postcolonial? —with a query mark— seeks to open an area for “essential European reflection” on a broad chapter within the historical past of the continent through which, in lots of points and relying on which international locations, it has not but been potential or prepared to show the web page.

“By addressing Europe’s colonial history, the House of European History contributes to correcting imbalances in narratives about Europe’s past,” says Constanze Itzel, the director of this museum linked to the European Parliament however managed independently. “This history of violence, genocide and cruel exploitation of both people and natural resources on a global scale is part of a European history that lasted four centuries,” he remembers within the presentation of the exhibition, which declares his intention to “challenge dominant narratives that have marginalized certain communities, leaving them invisible for a long time.”

The query marks within the title of the exhibition that runs till March 2027 are usually not gratuitous. They are an try and pressure, from the second you enter its doorways, debate and reflection on the best way through which the illustration of historical past shapes the world through which we reside. “We want to communicate with visitors by asking them: Is colonial history something of the past? Does it still have repercussions today?” the museum’s chief curator, Kieran Burns, explains to EL PAÍS. And these questions are key as a result of “this is an absolutely crucial and central story in European history, but it is a story that is still little known, little taught,” says the opposite particular person answerable for the exhibition, Ayoko Mensah.

A museum just like the House of European History, which since its inauguration in 2017 seeks to indicate from a number of views all the pieces that has contributed to as we speak’s Europe, “has the responsibility, on the one hand, to fulfill its specific mission, which is to address European history. And, on the other, to recognize the importance and central role of that colonial history,” the curator emphasizes. All of this with the goal of “rethinking what it means to be European, honestly examining Europe’s place in the world and imagining new ways of being and living together,” the exhibition proposes, which doesn’t essentially — or not solely — search to evaluate, however quite “recognize, show and tell” a actuality that’s typically uncomfortable and nonetheless too little explored, Burns factors out. Including the difficulty of racism that, Mensah emphasizes, “lasts to this day” and that’s mirrored within the exhibition with numerous tales and symbols, such because the sculptures of symbols of colonialism resembling Belgian King Leopold II stained with pink paint and even torn down throughout the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

To this finish, virtually 200 historic objects and paperwork, from the seventh century to as we speak, in addition to 25 modern artworks by artists engaged on the difficulty of decolonization from a number of views, each historic and financial, have been introduced collectively on this historic constructing situated a stone’s throw from European establishments and within the capital of one of many final nice – and brutal – colonial powers in Europe, Belgium. Or even gender, such because the “Colonial Dress” by the British artist Susan Stockwell, a sculpture created from maps of the British Empire within the form of a trendy costume on the finish of the nineteenth century.

Contemporary works, such because the “Botanist Kid” by the British-Nigerian Yinka Shonibare, which in flip invitations us to replicate on the climatic affect of the colonial period, are interspersed all through the exhibition with historic testimonies, from a registry of slaves from Puerto Rico from 1867, when it was nonetheless a Spanish colony, to maps that expose the colonial energy of Europe effectively into the twentieth century, to a doc of apology from the Australian Parliament to the indigenous peoples issued in 2008. Paintings, images, posters, books and even data additionally take a vital take a look at the acutely aware or unconscious influences, unfavourable but in addition optimistic, of that previous in Europe in current a long time and till as we speak.

The exhibition, which requires taking time to see, learn and replicate on the historic levels and the questions it raises, is accomplished with eight “personal stories”, the tales of an equal variety of artists who analyze in movies of about 5 minutes every how colonialism and its aftermath have marked their households and their work. And, all through the 11 months that it’s going to stay open, it will likely be accompanied by numerous workshops and talks on totally different points of colonialism – from migration to culinary heritage – and performances.

Those accountable are emphatic: this can be a first step in a means of reflection on decolonization – which many cultural establishments all through Europe have undertaken in recent times – with an exhibition that “does not intend to present a definitive story, but rather uses contemporary art to highlight absence and subjectivity, and propose alternative futures.”

Because “colonial structures have become so entrenched in social structures that we do not realize it, but we continue to be immersed in what is known as the colonial matrix of power,” Mensah emphasizes. According to the curator, “it is up to each visitor to carry out this work of reflection on themselves and on the impact” that colonialism has on European historical past, and on their very own. For some, says his colleague Burns, “that answer will be very clear, they will know it through their own life experience, but for others perhaps not.” In any case, he trusts, they are going to go away the House of European History fascinated about one thing “that is underway, that is relevant and that continues forward.”