Online Kick-Off – Decolonial and abolitionist perspectives on Remembrance

The event took place on the 1st September, from 18:00 to 21:00 CET on ZOOM.

What is it all about?

We started with a short travel through 3 years of the project “Cultures of Remembrance” and an outlook on the upcoming two years. We were glad to have two wonderful guests: Françoise Vergès and Sasha Baydal. Moderation was done by Vica Kravtsova. The meeting was organized by Educat Collective.

Input Françoise Vergès (bio below)

Françoise Vergès is a decolonial feminist talking on Decolonizing the Museum, Abolitionism and the influence of Capitalism.

Transcript of the input

Input Sasha Baydal (bio below)

Beginning with the question of how individual and family memories can be revisited through a critical lens, Sasha Baydal will explore how colonial and imperial structures—and the ways of thinking they sustain—are woven into processes of imagination, artistic creation, and remembrance. Drawing on selected art historical examples from the former Russian Empire, Baydal will invite reflection on the importance of approaching colonialisms and coloniality as layered and multi-faceted phenomena, situated within the wider constellation of global presents and pasts.

Transcript of the input

Costs

All events in the framework of the project are free of charge. If you feel like you want to support the project, feel free to donate though 🙂 E.g. on Betterplace with a click on the following link: https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/85789-educat-e-v-politische-bildung-in-ostdeutschland

Facilitators

Picture of Francoise with a headscarf, the arm held to the face. Francoise Verges written on the picture.

Françoise Vergès

Françoise Vergès is a decolonial feminist, independent curator and writer, currently Senior Fellow Researcher, Sarah Parker Center for the Study of Racism and Racialization, UCL, London. Webpage: https://francoiseverges.com, Instagram: francoise_verges_decolonial. Last publications: A Program of Absolute Disorder. Decolonizing the Museum (2024) and Making the World Clean. Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment and Racial Capitalism (2024).

photo: Bachir Tayachi © 2024

A persons head from behind. Sasha Baydal written in white letters.

Sasha Baydal

Sasha Baydal (they/he) is an interdependent curator and researcher, and an Eastern European kvir (queer). Their work focuses on experiences of displacement and diasporization, memory and its erasure, while also drawing from their own family history shaped by various forms of mobility. It is informed by postcolonial and queer theory and experiences, as well as decolonial and collective approaches, and involves daily efforts of recollection, remembrance, and decolonization. In 2021, Baydal co-founded the collective “Beyond the post-soviet”. They currently live and work between Marseille, Istanbul, and Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Sasha Baydal is a 2026 Villa Kujoyama Laureate, supported by the Institut français, the Institut français du Japon, and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.

photo: Maurine Tric © Adagp, Paris, 2024

Moderator

Vica Kravtsova

Vica Kravtsova was born in Smolensk, Russia. She created and developed the interdisciplinary platform “Feminist Translocalities” that connects and supports decolonial and antiracist activism in the CEECNA region. Now Vica is writing a dissertation about Russian identity and its relation to the global economy of whiteness.

Initiators

Educat – Educational Collective

Educat e.V. is a collective of education workers from Dresden, Rostock and Berlin, who do diversity- conscious and critical education, work on remembrance and emancipatory and experimental educational formats. Together with a lot of partners and comrades Educat is facilitating Cultures of Remembrance since 2021.

Project partners

The project has been carried and inspired by a huge network of comrades, activists, artists and educators. For the recent episode of “Cultures of Remembrance” together with Educat Collective, there is Art Platforma, Human Constanta, Prismatica and Solidarity Collectives involved as main partners.

Logo of prismatica. the word written in different colors.
Logo Human Constanta - white H with green and orange in it and the rest of the words written in purple.
art platforma logo - art in red, platforma written in black
in pink written letters QUEER, in black letters CAFE - Queer Cafe Logo

Spread the word

Feel free to share our pictures and spread the word. The post can also be found on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNk6ii0sxW0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.

On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining, there is the name of the project Decolonising Cultures of Remembrance in white letters. And Kick off event in pink letters. There is also a date and time written at the bottom: 1st September 6 pm CEST - online
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there are the names of the experts written in white letters - Françoise Vergès Sasha Baydal. Below in pink letters written the topic of their inputs "decolonial and abolitionist perspectives on remembrance".
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there is the name of the speaker and their biography written in white letters. Françoise Vergès is a decolonial feminist, independent curator and writer, currently Senior Fellow Researcher, Sarah Parker Center for the Study of Racism and Racialization, UCL, London. Webpage: https://francoiseverges.com, Instagram: francoise_verges_decolonial. Last publications: A Program of Absolute Disorder. Decolonizing the Museum (2024) and Making the World Clean. Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment and Racial Capitalism (2024).
There is a portrait of Françoise Vergès, she is sitting in a colourful head scarf on the blue background. Her hand is tucked below her head. She is wearing colourful bracelets on her arm. The name of the speaker Françoise Vergès is written in white letters.
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there is the name of the speaker Françoise Vergès in white letters. There is also the topic of the input written below in white letters "Decolonising the Museum and abolitionist perspectives".
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there is the name of the speaker and their biography written in white letters. Sasha Baydal (they/he) is an interdependent curator and researcher, and an Eastern European kvir (queer). Their work focuses on experiences of displacement and diasporization, memory and its erasure, while also drawing from their own family history shaped by various forms of mobility. It is informed by postcolonial and queer theory and experiences, as well as decolonial and collective approaches, and involves daily efforts of recollection, remembrance, and decolonization. In 2021, Baydal co-founded the collective "Beyond the post-soviet". They currently live and work between Marseille, Istanbul, and Tiohtià:ke/Montreal.
There is the picture of Sasha's head from the back. They are wearing an earring on the right ear. On the background there is a begue wall and green bushes. The name of the speaker is written in white letters "Sasha Baydal".
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there is the name of the speakerSasha Baydal in white letters. There is also the topic of the input written below in white letters "how colonial and imperial structures - and the ways of thinking they sustain - are woven into processes of imagination, artistic creation and remembrance".
On black and white background of a landscape shaped by mining there is the domain of the website in pink letters https://cultures-of-remembrance.com The date of the event is written in white letters below 1st September 6 pm CEST - online

Cultures of remembrance