Festvortrag Willibald-Sauerländer-Preis 2025 // Matthew Rampley, Brno: Why is it so difficult to talk about colonialism? Art and ‘colonial innocence’ in Central Europe
In the summer of 2024, many representatives of the Czech artistic and cultural establishment, such as the artist Milan Knížák, the architect Josef Pleskot, the musician Milan Cajs and the novelist Jáchym Topol, signed an online petition demanding the resignation of Maria Topolčanská, rector of the Academy of Arts in Prague, and of Alicja Knast, director of the National Gallery. The causes of complaint were numerous, but their criticisms focused, in particular, on the Czech entry to the Venice Biennale in that year, The Heart of a Giraffe in Captivity Weighs 12 Kilos Lighter, by Eva Koťátková, and a seemingly innocuous comment by Knast, that ‘ … we shall have to find new ways of discussing and resolving the colonial past, and do it in the countries of central Europe, too.’ In both cases, the signatories objected to the suggestion that questions of coloniality had anything to do with Czech culture. Or, rather, that the Czech experience of coloniality was merely as a historic subject of colonial oppression. Exploring a range of examples from art and visual culture since the mid-19th century, this lecture examines the theme of coloniality in the context of Czech culture and society. Questioning whether the contention of the signatories to the petition can be upheld, it also considers what it means for Czechs to talk about ‘resolving the colonial past’. Moreover, just what makes it so difficult to talk about colonial legacies in Czech society?
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