“Colonialism in camouflage”
Public programWith: Epp Annus, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Lia Dostlieva, Tatiana Fiodorova, Alevtina Kakhidze, Renata Salecl, Faina Yunusova
November 2022 – September 2023
Mudam – The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg
Commissioned by Mudam and curated by Beyond the post-soviet, the program is a response to the urge of acknowledging continued imperial violence in Central Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, the Caucasus, Central Asia and beyond, as well as their long-term repercussions on societies and their expression in visual arts. Beginning in November 2022, Colonialism in camouflage will unfold in a series of offline and online events: a lecture by Epp Annus, a listening session, a close reading of an artwork from the Mudam Collection and workshops for adults and children.
The programme borrows its title from Soviet Postcolonial Studies: A View from the Western Borderlands (2018), a book by literary scholar and writer Epp Annus, who uses the expression ‘colonialism in camouflage’ to highlight diverse strategies of Soviet domination that she considers to be disguised forms of colonialism. Deployed in multiple regions, these strategies entailed territorial occupations, deportations, genocides, man-made famines, repression of local cultures and imaginaries and a conscious eroding of cultural memory. The title also refers to a long history of military violence in these regions, wherein the recent Russian military offensive in Ukraine is not an isolated event but the result of ongoing imperial-colonial strategies and mindset.
In response to these issues, the programme seeks to build a safe space with the participants, where theoretical and artistic input, discussions and debates will include individual and collective stories and memories as valuable sources of knowledge. These moments of learning also intend to lead to a collective unlearning of the ideas and perspectives rooted in imperialism and pervading Western societies.