Unruly Knowledge: Rehearsing for Epistemic Restitution
This four-day program is developed by Amal Alhaag and Selene Wendt in collaboration with Pascale Obolo, Afrikadaa and the African Art Book Fair and aims to explore how artists, designers, thinkers, activists, and communities in Africa and its diasporas address the concept of epistemic restitution and the return of knowledge. The Unruly Knowledge sessions are conceived as an interdisciplinary call and response to the African Art Book Fair program.
This program seeks to centralize innovative forms of knowledge restitution by highlighting existing practices, toolkits, strategies, and networks that are necessary to either reinforce current community power structures or to challenge deeper structures of exploitation and domination. It’s a collective effort to understand how to (un)do or shift these dynamics, and to foster a nuanced dialogue that highlights the complexities of the interplay between knowledge, power, and societal structures.
The “Unruly Knowledge” sessions use the following question as a departure point: “How can there be a meaningful dialogue and process of repair, when the center of the restitution debate is still at the museums in Europe?” In this experimental and collaborative research program, we focus on the notion of epistemic restitution and the restitution of knowledge.
The program is organized around three interrelated themes: Rehearsing for Restitution of Knowledge, Memory Work is Embodied Knowledge and Unruly Designs: Decentering the Object. The conversations will be complimented by a participatory spatial experience: An Unruly Walk with Histories, as well as a collaborative sonic lecture/performance with Robert Machiri and Ibaaku, and daily Unruly Knowledge radio sessions that will be broadcast live via Lumbung Radio from the African Art Book Fair.
Participants include Laeïla Adjovi, Amal Alhaag, Barby Asante, Atelier Ndokette, Anguezezomo Mba Bikoro, Ibaaku, KENU LAB, Robert Machiri, Nathalie Nzinga B. Mboup, Tracian Meikle, Victor Mutelekesha, Pascale Obolo, Bodil Ouédraogo, and Selene Wendt.
