Handle with Care

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Start / iwalewabooks zine #1: Handle with Care: Post_Colonial Object Matters
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The zine "Handle with Care: Post_Colonial Object Matters" is the product of cross-cutting conversations. Designed as an open invitation to think further about post_colonial object_matters, it conjoins contributions from participants of a workshop on "un_doing post_colonial knowledges: perspectives from academia_arts_activism" which was held at the University of Bayreuth/Germany in July 2019, that was organised by Manuela Bauche (FU Berlin), Katharina Schramm (Univ. of Bayreuth) and Nadine Siegert (iwalewabooks).



Building on current discussions about the colonial legacies and the decolonial responsibilities of ethnographic museums, we wanted to explore the possible futures of objects marked by colonial relations of power and knowledge(s). We sought to shift the grounds of the debate from institutional concerns and legal aspects of restitution to more daring and wider-reaching questions. Our idea was to spark a debate around postcolonial justice that would decentralize the institutions of the European museum and university.

So we asked: What are the possibilities that can open up after an act of restitution to establish future-oriented relationships between different people, institutions and objects? How can we work with these "loaded" objects and generate a future with and for them? How can we create new platforms of welcoming these objects back on the African continent? How can we bring critical approaches from art, academic research, activism and museum practices in a fruitful dialogue with each other that works towards a responsible engagement with the colonial history and its material and immaterial traces?

With contributions by:
Loana Auer, Eva Bahl, Paola Ivanov, Larissa Förster, Christine Hanke, Sam Hopkins, Christian Jarling, Peju Layiwola, Immy Mali, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Malick Ndiaye, Yosé Reenders, Regina Sarreiter, Katharina Schramm, Nadine Siegert, Greer Valley