How can artistic and academic practices contribute to dismantling colonial legacies and reimagining narratives rooted in exclusion and silence? This event, ‘Decolonial’ Practice in Art and Our ‘Decolonial’ Appointment in Research , brings artists and scholars together to dialogue about the transformative potential of decolonial methodologies in art and research.
Through exploring creative and intellectual approaches, the speakers will examine the intersections of memory, archives, and cultural expression as spaces of resistance, healing, and reparation. The discussion will move beyond conventional frameworks, interrogating how Italian colonial history continues to shape the present. By weaving together diverse perspectives, the event aims to shed light on the interplay between personal and collective memory, historical omissions, and the role of artistic and academic labour in challenging entrenched power structures. Attendees will gain insights into the ongoing processes of confronting the past and imagining new futures.
Speakers' bios:
Dr. Daphné Budasz is an independent researcher, public historian, and antiracist activist. She is an alumna of the EUI’s history department. She is the co-founder of Postcolonial Italy, a grassroots public history project that aims at capturing and documenting material traces which are visible in the public space in order to stimulate a public debate on Italy’s silenced colonial history.
Jermay Michael Gabriel is an Italian-Ethiopian-Eritrean trans-disciplinary artist and curator that lives and works in Milan. His work is based on an experimental, and often extreme, effort to resist the permanence and elusiveness of the Italian colonial archive through the subversion of its symbols of power. Gabriel’s artistic practice embraces both sound and contemporary art. He starts from the assumption that spaces at the intersection of multiple forms of marginalisation, visibility or representation do not produce liberation. Colonial trauma does not have a linear trajectory, nor does memory. It sinks into the fibres without a temporal pattern and crosses generations, going back and forth between past, present and future. Gabriel’s process chronicles the multifaceted dimensions of these journeys, exorcising trauma through sound, installation and performance, embracing cultural legacies and collective memories as a form of healing. Jermay Michael Gabriel is a member of the music duo Plethor X together with sound designer Giovanni Isgrò. He is also the co-founder of BHMM (Black History Month Milan) and the founder of Kirykou (Milan).
Fartun Mohamed is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in modern Italy's social, political, and cultural history, specifically focusing on Italian colonialism and decolonization in Somalia. Her research explores the public memory of Italian colonialism and its lasting impact on contemporary Italian discourse. With a strong background in cultural anthropology, Fartun0s work aims to integrate thorough historiographical and methodological perspectives to deepen the understanding of the complex legacy of Italian colonialism.
No registration required.
Co-organised by:
Black History Month at the European University Institute (BHM at the EUI)
Black History Month Florence (BHMF)
Black History Month Milan (BHMM).