SAVVY Contemporary presents this programme in commemoration of the Berlin Conference and in the framework of the exhibition  WIR SIND ALLE BERLINER: 1884-2014 that is on view until 28 February.

In the lecture “In the Heart of the Lights”, Simon Njami – curator of the exhibition WIR SIND ALLE BERLINER: 1884-2014 at SAVVY Contemporary – will deliberate on the concept of the exhibition and the role and importance of artistic and cultural interventions in the context of shifting historical discourses and investigating politics of memory.

Simon Njami is a writer and an independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist.

Ann L. Stoler’s keynote lecture “Imperial Debris and Why it Matters Now” will set the framework of the discursive programme by redirecting the attention of critical engagement with colonial aftermaths towards the “less dramatic durabilities of duress” , the less visible and perceptible repercussions of imperial dispositions and the complex ways in which they shape not only the material but also the psychic space in which we live today. Stoler’s shift of focus from “left over” relics (ruins) as evidence of the past to what we are “left with” – the ongoing process of ruination through which imperial power occupies the present – allows for an account of those subtle durabilities. She challenges established assumptions about the way colonial pasts and colonial presents relate to each other, about the remnants of empire that do not only persist, but also continue to be reanimated.

Stoler’s lecture will take place against the backdrop of a Germany – and a Europe- that is experiencing protests and attacks against foreigners of an unforeseen magnitude and a sharpening of public anti-foreigner rhetoric. It will provide a crucial starting point to reflect upon the complexity of colonial presents and a basis to rethink contemporary socio-political developments in order to shift them.

Prof. Ann L. Stoler is the Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies at the New School for Social Research.

A Project by SAVVY Contemporary in Cooperation with ICI Berlin – Institute for Cultural Inquiry and Labor Kritische Europäisierungsforschung am Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Concept: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung with Elena Agudio, Anna Jäger, Saskia Köbschall

PART I – Keynote Lectures with Simon Njami and Ann L. Stoler

Tuesday, 17th February 2015, 6pm 

ICI Berlin – Institute for Cultural Inquiry 
Christinenstraße 18-19 | 10119 Berlin

www.ici-berlin.org

www.savvy-contemporary.com