“Most of my work, whatever its form, begins and is concerned with representations of the past. Or, to put it another way, with the stories we live by. My interests are in how histories are constructed, in how certain versions of history become hegemonic, in the roles that images and exhibitions play in ‘history-making’ and, most importantly, in how we, as cultural producers, we can intervene productively and progressively to challenge and transform those processes.”

In this lecture, KMD Research Fellow Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa will introduce some of her approaches to working with archival material and to contending with the concept of the archive itself. Her presentation will focus in particular on the projects she has developed in Bergen over the past two years for Actually, The Dead Are Not Dead: Bergen Assembly 2019, which can be seen/experienced in the city until 10 November 2019.

Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa is a researcher and artist. Recent/upcoming exhibitions include: Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead: Bergen Assembly 2019 (Bergen, NO); 62nd BFI London Film Festival (GB); Women on Aeroplanes (The Showroom Gallery, GB & Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw PL); We Don’t Need Another Hero (10th Berlin Biennale of Contemporary Art, DE); A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices for a Critical Modernity (Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo-CAAC, Seville, ES); and Kabbo Ka Muwala (National Gallery of Zimbabwe, ZW, Makerere University Art Gallery, UG & Kunsthalle Bremen, DE). Her essay, ‘Margaret Trowell’s School of Art or How to Keep the Children’s Work Really African’ was published in 2018 in the Palgrave Handbook on Race and the Arts in Education. Emma is a Research Fellow in Fine Art at the University of Bergen (NO) and Convenor of the Africa Cluster of the Another Roadmap School.

NB. This lecture is the first instalment of the week-long course, Critical Engagements with the Archive which includes discussions and screenings hosted by Roshini Kempadoo, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Claudia del Fierro, Alessandra Ferrini and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa. Public sessions 2 & 3 will take place on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th October from 16.00. Thursday 31 October is the study day (09.30-17.00). All events will take place at Belgin (The Bergen Assembly Space, Rasmus Meyer Allé 3, 5015 Bergen) ALL ARE WELCOME.