CTM 2023: The Time for Denial Is Over - Day 1

Lars-Christian Koch, Mwazulu Diyabanza, Sarah Imani, Eva-Maria Bertschy, Christian Nyampeta, Patrick Mudekereza
Since the 1960s, a movement of globally networked artists, intellectuals, and activists has persistently advocated for the restitution of African cultural assets and ancestral remains as an integral part of post-independence decolonisation. The debate on restitution has accelerated in recent years, with examples such as the Treasures of Béhanzin to the Republic of Benin, or of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. Countless initiatives by artists and cultural institutions have emerged worldwide to advance and accompany this restitution process. GROUP50:50 invites artists, activists and thinkers from Europe and Africa to further discuss the foundations for a transnational restitution movement.
Programme of the day:
»Who is the Thief, Who is the Owner?«
Talks by Mwazulu Diyabanza and Sarah Imani, moderated by Eva-Maria Bertschy.
Regarding cultural objects and Ancestral Remains in European museums, private collections, and university archives, a whole series of complex legal questions arise. Who is the owner of the objects? Are they objects at all or are they humans? Were they expropriated, taken by force, or legally acquired? To whom should they be returned? Because essential information is often missing to clarify these questions, many argue for the status quo. How do questions of ownership relate to the cultural rights and human rights of dispossessed peoples? In the course of restitution, the legal premises of our current world order are also subjected to a decolonial critique. Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza (Multicultural Front Against Looting) and researcher Sarah Imani (ECCHR) will give short talks and engage in a discussion moderated by Eva-Maria Bertschy.
»The Restitution of Intangible Cultural Heritage«
Introduction by Lars-Christian Koch
Screening: »Sometimes it was Beautiful« by Christian Nyampeta (not included in stream)
Christian Nyampeta in conversation with Patrick Mudekereza
In addition to cultural artefacts and Ancestral Remains, ethnographers, art collectors, and missionaries in the former colonies have also recorded and collected music and other intangible cultural heritage in order to make it available to European museums and universities for research purposes. So far, these have received little attention in the current restitution debate. How can these recordings be made accessible to artists, musicians, and researchers, but also to the local communities whose cultural heritage they represent? How can they be reappropriated? And how do we deal with the knowledge and representations that reproduce colonial violence? A short introduction by Prof. Lars-Christian Koch will be followed by a screening of Christian Nyampeta’s film »Sometimes it was beautiful« (not streamed), and a conversation with between the film director and the writer and curator Patrick Mudekereza.
Curated by GROUP50:50 in cooperation with CTM Festival, PODIUM Esslingen, Centre d’Art Waza Lubumbashi, and Fondazione Studio Rizoma Palermo. Funded by the German Federal Agency of Civic Education.
Watch »The Time for Denial is Over Day 2:« • CTM 2023: The Time for...
Recorded live on 3 February 2023
CTM Festival 2023 - Portals
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