RETURNS, RESTITUTIONS – PERFORMING COLONIAL COLLECTIONS
FESTIVAL DIALOGUES AFRIQUES
Seminars, Screenings, Performances
22-23 March 2024, Maison Heinrich Heine -Fondation de l’Allemagne and Fondation Lucien Paye, Cité internationale Universitaire, Paris
Lotte Arndt took part in a round table discussion as part of the Dialogues Afriques festival, in partnership with the international collaborative programme ReTours, Africapitales / Lavoir moderne Parisien, Cemti (Université Paris 8) and Sophiapol (Université de Nanterre).
The festival was curated by Julie Peghini (CEMTI-Université de Paris 8, Fondation Lucien Paye, ReTours), Franziska Humphreys (Heinrich Heine House, German Foundation) and Alexandra Galitzine-Loumpet (Cessma & Sophiapol, ReTours).
The period of restitutions since 2017 has opened the door to numerous controversies and initiatives, as well as to new epistemological and political perspectives on return. This return is to be taken in the plural: returns to colonial history and its spoliations; returns to the notion of heritage and ethnographic museums or non-Western arts; returns, above all, to the voice and place of those affected, in Africa and in the diasporas; and finally, returns to performances and creations that question the possible social unbinding and rearrangement of spoliated things and contemporary societies. The creative aspect is central to this, with many artists and performers giving voice to the voiceless, questioning the violence of colonial despoilment and the future of returns. By linking academic, curatorial and museum practices and performances from Africa and Europe, between frictions and alliances, these events aim to continue the debate.
Programme
Friday 22 March 2024 - Heinrich Heine House and Lucien Paye Foundation
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm - Restitution feedback, multi-situated epistemologies - Fondation Lucien Paye. As part of the "Arts in Africa and its Diasporas" Seminar (IMAF).
Presentation of the double issue of the journal Cahiers d'Études africaines "Retours de restitutions", in the presence of : Didier Houénoudé (University of Abomey-Calavi, ReTours), Claire Bosc-Tiessé (CNRS-EHESS), Ysé Auque-Pallez (Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM), Sciences Po Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux), Sara Tassi (Habiter Research Centre, Free University of Brussels).
Moderation: Saskia Cousin (Sophiapol U. de Nanterre, ReTours)
7.30-9.30pm Screening of the documentary film Restituting? Africa in search of its masterpieces - Heinrich Heine House, German Foundation (access)umen
Documentary written and directed by Nora Philippe (Coproduction ARTE, Cinétévé, with the participation of TV5 Monde, 2021, 83 minutes, vostfr). Followed by a debate with Nora Philippe, filmmaker, curator, producer and teacher, and Felicity Bodenstein, art historian (Sorbonne University, Digital Benin).
Saturday 23 March 2024 - Fondation Lucien Paye
Performing colonial collections
2.00 pm - 3.30 pm: Round-table 1: Performing - How performance challenges the museum
Nanette Snoep (Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne)
Zora Snake (performer, choreographer, Cie Zora Snake)
Rafiy Okefolahan (artist, performer)
Parfait Akana (U. of Yaoundé II, The Muntu Institute) on video
Alexandra Galitzine-Loumpet (CESSMA and Sophiapol, U. de Nanterre, ReTours)
Julie Peghini (CEMTI, Université Paris 8, Fondation Lucien Paye)
Moderator: Anne Doquet (IRD, Institute of African Worlds, ReTours)
15:30-16:00: Coffee break
16.00-17.30: Round-table 2: Diasporing - The place of diasporas in times of restitution
Mamarame Seck (IFAN, U. Cheik Anta Diop, Director of the Musée d'histoire du Sénégal in Gorée)
Emmanuelle Cadet, Alter Natives association
Michèle Weni (artist)
Lotte Arndt (theorist of artistic practices, Technische Universität Berlin, Reconnecting "Objects") - by video-conference
Françoise Vergès (Political scientist, Senior Fellow Researcher, Sarah Parker Centre for the Study of Race and Racialisation, UCL, London)
Moderator: Didier Marcel Houénoudé (University of Abomey-Calavi)
6.00-7.30pm: The Villager's Opera by Zora Snake, performance
In keeping with the "Retours de restitution" day of debates, artist Zora Snake has taken her inspiration from the theme of masks, drawing on all their power, driven by a relationship with the body and cosmogony. Much more than just art objects to be found in museums, the artist gives masks back their story, their history, their sacred womb. In this way, they are given back the part they play in a structured society, charged with a culture that has long remained silent as part of the colonial heritage, and which we now need to reawaken in this great struggle: the masks in their inexhaustible aesthetic richness.
Live music / Flute: Maddly Mendy Sylva
Production: Compagnie Zora Snake and Faso danse Téâtri
Delegated production: Festival Sens Interdits