Decolonizing Public Space - SOLD OUT

The material and cultural legacies of colonialism survive in our public and private spaces, streets, and museums. The issue of colonial heritage is at the center of critical reflection in many European cities, highlighting the urgency of decolonizing spaces, narratives, epistemologies, and cultural imaginaries. What does it mean to adopt a decolonial approach in the urban environment? How to interact with communities that inhabit public space, in fragile places that require care and are often left on the sidelines of official history?

This event at CIVA animates a comparison between practices that aim to re-politicize historical memory through interventions on public assets. The feminist and decolonial scholar Françoise Vergès will open the evening with a focus on colonial violence of public spaces starting from her recent publication “De la violence coloniale dans l’espace public / On colonial violence in public spaces” (Shed Publishing, 2021).

Her intervention will be followed by a conversation with members of the working group that authored the “Rapport pour la décolonisation de l’espace public / Report for the decolonization of public space” in Brussels.  Building upon the demonstrations against anti-Black racism led over the years by the associations of Afro-descendants in Brussels, the group launched a reflection on the "symbols linked to colonization and the colonial period present in the public space” to propose a framework for analysis and action in the Brussels-Capital Region.

The evening will be closed by a round table animated by Professor Rolando Vazquez Melken, author of “The Vistas of Modernity. Decolonial aesthesis and the end of the contemporary” (Jap Sam Books, 2020).

With Françoise Vergèse (via video conference*), Rolando Vazquez Melken and members of the working group who authored the “Rapport pour la décolonisation de l’espace public / Report for the decolonization of public space” in Brussels, Alexandre Chevalier, Georgina Dibua, Salomé Ysebart, Yasmina Zian (members of the working group Vers la Décolonization de l’espace public en Région de Bruxelles-Capitale), Sammy Baloji, Phillip Van Den Bossche and Eric Van Hove.