<p>Flora Gomes holding the clapper-board for <em>Guiné-Bissau, 6 Anos Depois</em>, 1980 (unfinished film). © INCA Guinea-Bissau, José Cobumba, Josefina Crato, Flora Gomes, Sana na N’Hada</p>
<p>Flora Gomes holding the clapper-board for <em>Guiné-Bissau, 6 Anos Depois</em>, 1980 (unfinished film). © INCA Guinea-Bissau, José Cobumba, Josefina Crato, Flora Gomes, Sana na N’Hada</p>

No. 7: Postcolonial Image Archives

Managing editor: Tomasz Szerszeń

Flora Gomes holding the clapper-board for Guiné-Bissau, 6 Anos Depois, 1980 (unfinished film). © INCA Guinea-Bissau, José Cobumba, Josefina Crato, Flora Gomes, Sana na N’Hada

The issue was co-financed by the Rector of the University of Warsaw and the Dean of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Digital Humanities Centre at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Table of Contents

Introduction

  1. Postcolonial Image Archives

    ”Postcolonial Image Archives”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1426

    An introduction to issue 7/2014.

    keywords: archive; postcolonialism; colonialism; images

Viewpoint

  1. Alang Transfer

    Janek Simon
    Janek Simon, ”Alang Transfer”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1622

    Presentation of Janek Simon's project Alang Transfer (2014).

    keywords: history; colonialism; India; Madagascar; Nigeria

  2. A Historical Materialist in Nollywood

    Michał Pospiszyl
    Michał Pospiszyl, ”A Historical Materialist in Nollywood”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1427

    A commentary to Janek Simon's project "Alang Transfer." In his artistic projects realized in India, Madagascar, or Nigeria, Simon breaks and profanes linear histories of colonial dependence at the same time revealing new, more independent possibilities of its conceptualization.

    keywords: Nollywood; historical materialism; anthropological machine; Janek Simon

  3. The Album

    Sammy Baloji
    Sammy Baloji, ”The Album”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.2003

    Presentation of Sammy Baloji's project The Album (2013).

    keywords: album; photography; Belgian Congo; Africa; colonialism

  4. Album of Photos. The Album

    Tomasz Szerszeń
    Tomasz Szerszeń, ”Album of Photos. The Album”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1428

    Text devoted to Sammy Baloji’s The Album (2013). Baloji combines the historical images of Belgian explorer and hunter Henry Pauwels (exploring the Congo in 1911-13) with the very contemporary photos that shows violence and war in the same area. The Album could be perceived in the light of what T.J. Demos called the “colonial hauntology”. The Album suspends the meaning, rather poses questions than gives answers. That understanding of history, of the temporality, returns constantly in Baloji’s work.

    keywords: album; photography; Belgian Congo; Africa; Sammy Baloji; colonialism

Close-up

  1. A Colonial Hauntology: Vincent Meessen's Vita Nova

    T.J. Demos
    T.J. Demos, ”A Colonial Hauntology: Vincent Meessen's Vita Nova”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1087

    Polish translation of the chapter A Colonial Hauntology: Vincent Meessen's Vita Nova from T.J. Demos's book Return to the Postcolony: Specters of Colonialism in Contemporary Art (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013).

    keywords: Vincenta Meessen; colonialism; hauntology

  2. Before Six Years After. Notes on the re-emergence of a film archive in Guinea-Bissau

    Tobias Hering
    Tobias Hering, ”Before Six Years After. Notes on the re-emergence of a film archive...”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1429

    In 2011, the artist Filipa César was given access to the archive of the Instituto Nacional de Cinema e Audiovisual (INCA) in Bissau, which holds the remains of a precarious but dedicated documentary film production during the final phase of the liberation war and the first years of independence in Guinea-Bissau (roughly from 1972 to 1980). Together with two of the film-makers involved, Flora Gomes and Sana na N'Hada, and a group of researchers and film-makers from Bissau, Filipa César is since then engaged in an ongoing project experimenting with various forms of re-visualization and re-evaluation of this archive. Tobias Hering has participated in this process on several occasions and wrote about it in the essay Before six years after, published for Filipa César's exhibition at Jeu de Paume (Paris) in October 2012. The text published here is a critically revised and annotated version of this earlier essay.

    keywords: Filipa César; Guinea-Bissau; archive; film

  3. “Standing, Exhibited in this Manner…”. From the “Human Zoo” to the “Human Installation” and Back, or What to Do with Images of Hegemonic Oppression

    Olga Stanisławska
    Olga Stanisławska, ”“Standing, Exhibited in this Manner…”. ”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1091

    The point of the departure for this essay are the polemic voices accumulated around Brett Bailey’s artistic installation/performance Exhibit B – a project, which plays with the idea of “human zoo”. The author analyzes why this antiracist project provoked protests and was accused of being racist and asks whether importing images of hegemonic oppression into the critical discourse must always repeat their oppressive influence.

    keywords: Brett Bailey; “human zoo”; antiracism

  4. Windows of Africa

    Tomasz Szerszeń
    Tomasz Szerszeń, ”Windows of Africa”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1093

    Pasolini’s Appunti per una Orestiada Africana is a complex film essay located on the crossroads of “engaged cinema” and self-portrait, postcolonial panorama and reinterpretation of mythology. The point of departure for the essay is the opening scene, in which Pasolini’s shadow reflects in the window on African shop. The author delves into the meaning of this motif in the postcolonial context.

    keywords: Pier Paolo Pasolini; Africa; “engaged cinema”; self-portrait; postcolonialism

  5. In the Land of Young Goddesses

    Małgorzata Maria Grąbczewska
    Małgorzata Maria Grąbczewska, ”In the Land of Young Goddesses”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1094

    This essay considers the dynamic relationship between photography and colonial politics and practice, on the example of the activities and works of Kazimierz Zagorski, photograph in Congo in the 20s and 30s of 20th century. Seeing the series of photographs of headdresses taken by Zagorski together with contemporary works of J. D 'Okhai Ojeikere and Lorna Simpson shows the role of photography in the construction of violent colonial domination, but also in the construction of postcolonial identity of freedom.

    keywords: Kazimierz Zagórski; Congo; colonialism; photography

  6. Leth’s Haiti. The Allure of the Exotic

    Sławomir Sikora
    Sławomir Sikora, ”Leth’s Haiti. The Allure of the Exotic”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1095

    Haiti, Untitled (1996) by Jørgen Leth depicts in an intriguing way a country caught in political upheaval, and the ensuing chaos of the first half of the 1990s. By employing a non-linear narrative and through his use of a very specific editing technique, Leth constructs a heteroglossic “thick film” (this term is not to be equated with Clifford Geertz’s “thick description”). Leth’s work may, however, stir some controversy due to the author’s take on exoticization and nostalgia. These issues, among others, are discussed in the paper.

    keywords: Jørgen Leth; Haiti; “thick film”; film

Panorama

  1. Fragments; or, The Ends of Photography

    Hannah Feldman
    Hannah Feldman, ”Fragments; or, The Ends of Photography”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1097

    Chapter Fragments; or, The Ends of Photography from the book From a Nation Torn: Decolonizing Art and Representation in France, 1945-1962 (Duke University Press 2014).

    keywords: fragment; decolonisation; André Malraux; France; photography

  2. Colonialism on the Poster. Impressions d'Afrique by Raymond Roussel

    Tomasz Swoboda
    Tomasz Swoboda, ”Colonialism on the Poster. Impressions d'Afrique by Raymond Roussel”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1099

    Starting from the theatrical poster for a play based on Raymond Roussel’s Impressions d'Afrique, the author attempts to interpret it in the light of Roussel’s literary experiments and colonial stereotypes from the beginning of the 20th century. The poster resonates in two different, complementary contexts that undermine its unequivocal character and question its realism. Roussel’s novel and stage piece (as well as the poster) ironically plays with the colonial tradition and reveals its deconstructive potential.

    keywords: Raymond Roussel; Africa; colonial stereotypes; novel; poster

Perspectives

  1. Postcolonial Museum Laboratory, Clémentine Deliss in conversation with Joanna Sokołowska

    Clémentine Deliss, Joanna Sokołowska
    Clémentine Deliss, Joanna Sokołowska, ”Postcolonial Museum Laboratory, Clémentine Deliss in conversation”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1431

    A conversation between Clémentine Deliss, the director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, and Joanna Sokołowska, curator at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź about new forms of research and exhibition at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt.

    keywords: Clémentine Deliss; Joanna Sokołowska; postcolonialism; Weltkulturen Museum

  2. “Mickiewicz died, Grąbczewski is born…” On Orient's Migrations and Migrations to the Orient

    Max Cegielski, Katarzyna Bojarska, Katarzyna Czeczot
    Max Cegielski, Katarzyna Bojarska et al., ”“Mickiewicz died, Grąbczewski is born…” On Orient's Migrations and ”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1100

    A conversation with Max Cegielski, writer and curator, about his two latest projects: Migrating University of Mickiewicz in Istanbul and another one concerning tracing the history of Polish explorer and ethnographer Bronisław Grąbczewski.

    keywords: Max Cegielski; Adam Mickiewicz; Bronisław Grąbczewski; ethnography

Snapshots

  1. Global International Style at the Berlin Biennale 8

    Daniel Muzyczuk
    Daniel Muzyczuk, ”Global International Style at the Berlin Biennale 8”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1102

    A short critical essay on the 8th Berlin Biennale, curated by Juan A. Gaitán, May 29th - August 3rd, 2014.

    keywords: Biennale; Berlin; international style; postcolonialism; history; Juan A. Gaitán

  2. Kharkiv Photography School. Group “Shilo” (V. Krasnoshchok, S. Lebedynskyy, V. Trykoz)

    Tatiyana Pavlova
    Tatiyana Pavlova, ”Kharkiv Photography School. Group “Shilo””, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1432

    Notes on the Shilo Group, a Ukrainian photography collective in the wider context of Ukrainian contemporary art. The exhibition Shilo Group/Finished Dissertation, V. Krasnoshchok/Tretiakovka was shown last autumn in Asymetria Gallery in Warsaw.

    keywords: Shilo Group; Ukraine; photography; Vladyslav Krasnoshchok; Sergiy Lebedynskyy; Vadym Trykoz

  3. Progressive Hygienists and Wall Rippers

    Katarzyna Bojarska
    Katarzyna Bojarska, ”Progressive Hygienists and Wall Rippers”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1104

    A critical essay on two exhibition curated recently by Anda Rottenberg in Zachęta National Art Gallery in Warsaw, Progress and Hygiene and Gregor Schneider's Unsubscribe.

    keywords: Anda Rottenberg; Zachęta National Art Gallery; violence; modernity; biopolitics

  4. Thousands of Lost Events. About an exhibition "Maria Bartuszová. Provisional forms"

    Tatiyana Pavlova
    Tatiyana Pavlova, ”Thousands of Lost Events. About an exhibition”, View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture 7 (2014), https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2014.7.1105

    A review of the exhibition "Maria Bartuszová. Provisional forms", Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, curated by Marta Dziewańska and Gabriela Garlatyová, 26th September 2014 – 6th January 2015.

    keywords: Maria Bartuszová; Maria Bartuszová; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; genealogy; Michel Foucault