Ring di Alarm: On Restitution, Lingering Colonial Histories and Other Diseases

PUBLIC EVENT | 25 October 2024 | 10.00 - 15.30 | Gerbrandszaal, Wereldmuseum Leiden

In the one-day gathering, Ring di Alarm: On Restitution, Lingering Colonial Histories, and Other Diseases, we delve into themes such as Memory Work, Navigating Unmapped Archives, Listening to Everyday Histories, and The Politics of Restitution. These sessions aim to explore how artists, designers, thinkers, activists, and communities in Africa and its diasporas imagine and practice epistemological approaches to restitution and the return of knowledge. In what ways can we stretch the notion of restitution to also include complex strategies of reparation to confront the injustices of the present?

Confirmed speakers include: Robert Machiri, Sabrine Ingabire, Carine Zaayman, Quinsy Gario, Felwine Sarr, Kinsi Abdulleh, James Webb, Atabey, and Jackie Karuti.

Moderators: Amal Alhaag and Selene Wendt

Entrance is free of charge, please register below. Practical information on how to access the venue can be found below.

Program

The program is a site of study as well as a space for sharing knowledge, practices, materials, and subversive strategies, that can function as a guide through the complexities of the restitution debate(s). In what ways does the discourse around restitution, policy-making, and notions of reparative futures mirror the systemic and structural colonial and racial status quo? Rehearsing together means examining existing practices, toolkits, strategies, and networks which either reinforce current power structures or challenge deeper structures of exploitation and domination. This involves a collective effort to understand how to (un)do or shift these dynamics, to foster a nuanced dialogue on the intricate interplay between knowledge, power, and societal structures. With Ring di Alarm, we intend to address the restitution debate from pluriversal geographies and positionalities beyond the binary of African and European contexts. What is needed to practice freedom and imagine otherwise?

Ring di Alarm is part of the collaborative research chapter of the multi-locational and multi-year research and artistic project Sustaining the Otherwise, initiated by curators and researchers Selene Wendt and Amal Alhaag. Sustaining the Otherwise takes an active approach to engaging with the topic of restitution by attempting to dismantle the hierarchical institutional status quo and focusing on artistic, design, research, and spatial practices that activate decoloniality in different sites and multiple temporalities.

10:00 – 10:15	Welcome words by Wayne Modest, Selene Wendt and Amal Alhaag
10.15 – 10:30	Performance/invocation: Quinsy Gario
10:30 – 11:45	Conversation I: Navigating Unmapped Archives Quinsy Gario, Jackie Karuti and Atabey followed by moderated conversation and group discussion.
11:45 – 13:00	Conversation II: Memory Work Robert Machiri, Sabrine Ingabire and Carine Zaayman followed by moderated conversation and group discussion.
13.00 - 14.00	Break
14:00 – 15:15	Conversation III: Listening to Everyday Histories James Webb, Kinsi Abdulleh and Felwine Sarr followed by moderated conversation and group discussion.
15:15 - 15:30	Final performance: Robert Machiri
15.30	End of program
16.30	13th Annual Adriaan Gerbrands Lecture with Professor Felwine Sarr

After the program ends, at 16.30, you are all invited to attend the 13th Annual Adriaan Gerbrands Lecture with Professor Felwine Sarr in the Grotezaal of the Wereldmuseum Leiden. More information and free registration can be found here: 13th Annual Adriaan Gerbrands Lecture: Felwine Sarr | Research Center for Material Culture

Sustaining the Otherwise

About the venue

The Gerbrandszaal venue is situated within the Boerhaave building of Wereldmuseum Leiden, on the left-hand side of the main entrance gates of the museum.