TALKING OBJECTS
The artistic research project TALKING OBJECTS is dedicated to the decolonization of memory and knowledge.
In three parts – THINK TANKS, ARCHIVE and LAB – the question is explored of what knowledge can be today, beyond European knowledge systems. New perspectives and different questions are needed in order to break up colonial thought patterns and challenge Eurocentric views.
In cooperation with TALKING OBJECTS, KfW Stiftung implements the TALKING OBJECTS THINK TANKS and contributes to the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE.
TALKING OBJECTS THINK TANKS
Scientists, artists and other experts will be invited to the multi-day conferences in Dakar (2023), Frankfurt am Main (2024) and Nairobi (2024) to explore the following questions discursively and artistically: How can we decolonise knowledge? What can a decolonial digital archive look like? What does polyperspectivity mean? How do we make objects speak?
THINK TANKS
25-27.05.2023 Musée Théodore Monod
The THINK TANK DAKAR brings together interdisciplinary researchers and artists, and all those who wish to share their knowledge, to approach different sources and expressions of knowledge.
Day 1 - 25 May, 18:00 GMT
Day 2 - 26 May, 17:30 GMT
Day 3 - 27 May, 10:00 GMT
Please mind the time difference.
TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE & LAB
The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE was developed from 2022 to 2024. The online archive features artifacts from European and African museums, aiming for a broader understanding of knowledge. It serves researchers, artists and anyone interested in decolonial perspectives on knowledge creation, centered around the question: “What could knowledge beyond European systems look like today?”
Developed with African Digital Heritage (Nairobi) and visual intelligence (Berlin), the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE integrates themes of knowledge, identity, memory, and restitution
The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE was officially launched on January 17, 2025.
The video of the launch event is still available on YouTube
The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE is now online!
The TALKING OBJECTS LAB has been unfolding since 2020 in symposia, artistic interventions and exhibitions. The aim is to break Eurocentric knowledge systems and make the complexity of knowledge visible.
Initiated by Isabel Raabe, the curatorial team includes Chao Tayiana Maina, Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, Isabel Raabe and Malick Ndiaye.
TALKING OBJECTS is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media/BKM, the KfW Foundation, the Federal Foreign Office and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The events within the LAB are supported by various funders on a project-by-project basis.
In cooperation with TALKING OBJECTS, KfW Stiftung implements the TALKING OBJECTS THINK TANKS and contributes to the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE.
TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE - DIGITAL LAUNCH
Partner
The curatorial team of TALKING OBJECTS consists of El Hadji Malick Ndiaye (Dakar), Njoki Ngumi (Nairobi), Chao Tayiana Maina (Nairobi), Isabel Raabe (Berlin) and Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (Frankfurt am Main).
TALKING OBJECTS project partners are the Musée Théodore Monod (Dakar), The Nest Collective (Nairobi), African Digital Heritage (Nairobi), the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum (Cologne), the Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde (Leipzig) and the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt am Main), and the Inter-Collection Research of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden.
Further information can be found here.
Programme Management
Daniela Leykam
Image Credits
01. Photo: Élise Fitte-Duval, Le génie du Buffle, 2023
02. Photo: Ibrahima Thiam, Maam Ndeuk Daour Mbaye, 2020