Ep #9.2 Decolonising colonial museums is a fallacy | Worlding Podcast

On a -9° winters day in Rigor - Latvia, dance artist Agnese Bordjukova shared methods to develop awareness of processes within the human body that can then extend outwards to embrace our surroundings, making sensible the interconnection between bodies and worlds. Agnese often works with ‘non-motion’ such as sleeping or stillness, as a starting point for her choreographies. From this place, she focuses on the intensity of her internal activity which then inspires her to make dance works for video and stage. In this episode we discuss two of her short dance videos: ‘Hear me’ (2017) - a creation about sound generated by the human body and the ‘Loudest place in the world’ (2020) - exploring the topic of freedom and how this is communicated through only the head and shoulders.  Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

Human inability to value the role of plants on earth and see or notice plants in one's everyday life is a phenomenon known as ‘plant blindness’. Media artist Daniel Hengst addresses this phenomenon through his work, asking whether we are willing to empathize with plants and grant them an autonomous intrinsic value. Daniel’s projects often center non-human subjects and deal with the potential of digital technologies to encourage social change. In this episode we focus on Daniel’s works ‘Blooming love’ - a virtual reality artwork that explores the simulated Peatlands of Latvia and ‘Nastien & Tropismen’ - a virtual-installative greenhouse where no plants grow according to human doctrine, enabling new relationships between humans and plants develop. Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

While scientists tend to categorize their objects of study in order to verify some pre-prepared hypotheses, visual artist Oliver Thie is focused on the individual within the species or class of things. In this episode we dive into two of Oliver’s solo exhibitions: ‘The truth about the origin of the world’ (2020) where he worked with an 18th century stone collection from the Siebengebirge in Germany and ‘Mapping the Invisible’ where Oliver explores a microscopic Hawaiian cave-dwelling cicada by enlarging it into a wall-sized drawing. In times of Anthropocentric landscapes and rapidly increasing insect extinction, his work is a persistent act of documentation that brings to life unseen microcosms and the beauty within the individuality of things.  Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

Focused on access and inclusion with regards to neuro-difference and disability, Anna Farley shares how she navigates her life and artistic work with support and family, placing her autism front and center. In her work, Anna creates Visual Guides for exhibitions that offer visitors another way of accessing the display without relying only on text or speech. Filled with images and simple short sentences, the guides provide an alternative future for how we talk about art and, more broadly, how we could share important information within public institutions.  Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

In her practice of art mediation, Viviane Tabach - a Brazilian curator and mediator - seeks to be porous to the visitors and facilitate the creation of a ‘collective body’, where all participants and entities within the gallery become channels of knowledge. Inspired by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, Viviane sees Worlding through the lens of the learning process, as Freire states: “No one educates anyone - no one educates themselves. We educate one another with the mediation of the world”.  Seeking to expand mediation and foster a shared dialogue, Viviane reflects on her experiences working at documenta fifteen and the 11th Berlin Biennale where she facilitated a tour entitled ‘When was the last time you changed your mind?’ that invited visitors to re-think sensitive topics. Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

Talking about mutant species and a speculative world yet-to-come, Kat Válastur - a Berlin-based choreographer and performer - shares her interest in film and how the editing process can be used as a tool within choreography and composition. In this episode we focus on her hybrid work ‘Stellar Fauna’: part performance and part film installation, the project merges reality and fiction in a minimal yet expressive way. Inspired by the cardiovascular system of a crocodile, Kat guides us through her processes of making the film, panning in and out on the details of a human body - biting nails, tense lips - and creating a new world shaped by our present.  Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

In the Andean world the human body, nature and community are united. In colonisation this connection is broken. A good example of this is the Mallqui - a mummy combining two bodies: that of an old man and an indigenous child from the Lower Valley of the Chillon River, which is now on public display at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. In the West the mummy is considered dead, in the Andean culture the mummy is still alive.  Daniela Zambrano Almidón is a Peruvian Quechua researcher and interdisciplinary artist with a focus on Andean-Amazonian popular culture. In this episode, Daniela shares how she is furthering the dialogue between Postcolonial time and indigenous Abya Yala time, particularly through her documentary in development - “The Restitution of Dignity” that follows the story of the Mallqui. Daniela explains how she seeks to contextualise and understand the complexity of indigenous societies, as well as the need to restitute their memory and representation. Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

The whole debate on the decolonisation of colonial museums is a misconception. The collection of cultural treasures from other societies in order to modernise the West, demonstrates that modernity has always been influenced by European white racism and required ‘primitive’ societies in order to feel superior.  Dr. Christoph Balzar - a curator and art scholar with a focus on Postcolonial theory - argues that we cannot remove this cultural heritage from Ethnographic Museums and therefore they should be defunded, in particular the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. Christoph advocates for Decolonisation Councils that work independently from institutions and take up advisory functions, addressing unbalanced power dynamics and deconstructing the colonial ideologies that shape our world.  Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

Speaking from her BIPoC perspective, Martha Hincapié Charry - a Colombian artist based in Berlin, with Quimbaya ancestors - reflects on the present, past and future of the Amazon rainforest. Focusing on her recent solo performance/video installation “AMAZONIA 2040”, Martha shares her ideas of home and community during our times of climate chaos and the disappearance of biodiversity. In her artistic and curatorial practice, Martha creates spaces for dialogue between continents, generating a critical reflection on the relationship between humans and nature, the visible and often invisible world. Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding

In direct response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ‘Unplanting the seeds of hatred’ is a project that approaches the body as soil, in which physical and mental seeds can grow. In this episode, Vera Shchelkina - a Russian somatic dance artist and founder of the project - chats to Renae about how the practice has the potential to slow us down and recognise that what is happening mentally is also a process within our bodies. Even by observing the process of seeding we can already begin to change and transform it, encouraging the ‘plants’ to grow in new ways. Learn more at: http://renaeshadler.com/worlding