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Decolonization is a process, not a goal: Encounters in the library of the Kunsthalle Basel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2020

Nistiman Erdede ,
Regina Vogel  and
Erica Foden-Lenahan
Nistiman Erdede
Affiliation:
Independent artist, curator, and journalist Birmensdorferstrasse 208 [email protected]
Regina Vogel
Affiliation:
Librarian Kunsthalle Basel Klostergasse 5 CH – [email protected]
Erica Foden-Lenahan
Affiliation:
Librarian Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe Contact details inside front cover
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Abstract

Chance encounters, some several years apart, form the basis of this article between 2 librarians and an artist, all 3 considering the process of decolonizing libraries within the wider context of colonial legacies in the societies in which they were born and in which they now live. The librarians Regina Vogel and Erica Foden-Lenahan have been friends and colleagues for many years, and their personal conversations over the years have often involved discussions of equality and injustice. The overlap in their professional interests led to this article proposal. A serendipitous meeting between Vogel and decolonial artist and curator Nistiman Erdede at an event2 organized by Abendschule Import in co-operation with the famous Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and later when he visited the Kunsthalle Basel where Vogel is the librarian, changed the original direction of the article, but presented an opportunity for a 3-way discussion of decolonization in the context of a Swiss and a German art library and a refugee artist's experience. The Covid-19 border and workplace lockdowns necessitated that some of these encounters happened virtually.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 162 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of ARLIS

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Footnotes

This idea of a long-term process, rather than a goal one might see in a forward plan, has been articulated by many writers, including Linda Tuhiwai Smith in Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed, 1999 and John Pateman. “Decolonization” Open shelf blog, 25 January 2018. https://open-shelf.ca/180205-decolonization/, accessed 7 June 2020.

2.

Abendschule Import Zurich. Event listing: Decolonial Art: “Can the subaltern make art?” with Nistiman Erdede, 11 December 2019. https://abendschule-import.ch/en/event/dekolonialismus-can-the-subaltern-make-art-mit-nistiman-erdede-2/. Accessed 21 June 2020.

References

3. Nistiman Erdede. Memories shaping my world: Decolonisation of Lausanne Peace Treaty Table. Text for upcoming project, August 2020. http://zh-kolonial.ch/

4. Regina Vogel, in personal document to E. Foden-Lenahan, 24 March 2020.

5. Ibid.

6. Nistiman Erdede, in conversation with Regina Vogel, recorded 22 March 2020. Audio file.

7. A description of this SVP proposal is in German on Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidgen%C3%B6ssische_Volksinitiative_%C2%ABF%C3%Bcr_die_Ausschaffung_krimineller_Ausl%C3%A4nder_(Ausschaffungsinitiative)%C2%BB, accessed 26 June 2020. It is not available in an English version. There are some reports on the actual vote in English-speaking press, such as “Swiss Right wins vote on deportation of criminals” by Nick Cumming-Bruce in the New York Times, 28 November 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/europe/29iht-swiss.html, accessed 26 June 2020. For more analysis of the SVP in English, a couple of sources are Europe at the crossroads: Confronting populist, nationalist and global challenges, edited by Pieter Bevelander and Ruth Wodak, Lund: Nordic Academic P, 2019 and by Daniel Stockemer in “The success of the Swiss People's Party is down to better party organisation, not a general increase in support for the far-right in Switzerland” on the LSE's Evidence-based analysis and commentary on European politics blog, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/09/17/swiss-peoples-party-stockemer/, accessed 26 June 2020.

8. Bourdieu., Pierre Die Regeln der Kunst. Genese und Struktur des literarischen Feldes. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1999Google Scholar.

9. Said., Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979, 1Google Scholar.

10. Ibid, 1–2.

11. Sontag., Susan Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus und Giroux, 2003, 106CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Ibid, 106.

13. Ibid, 8.

14. Hellenic Resource Network. “Turkey-Switzerland marks 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations” Turkish press review, 08-11-12 http://www.hri.org/news/turkey/trkpr/2008/08-11-12.trkpr.html. Accessed 24 June 2020.

15. Ismet Inonu, as quoted in B. Simsir, Ingiliz Belgeleriyle Turkiye'de Kurt Sorunu: 1925–1938 [The Kurdish Question in Turkey in British Documents: 1925–1938], Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1991: 58.

16. Anderson., Benedict Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, rev. ed. London: Verso, 1991Google Scholar.

17. Decolonial Summer School Middelburg https://decolonialsummerschool.wordpress.com/previous-courses/2015-stolen-memories-museums-slavery-and-de-coloniality/ and “Envoy scholarship,” http://foa-flux.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/nistiman-erdede-foa-flux-envoy_.pdf. Accessed 21 June 2020.

18. For information on the activities and resources of the AntiKultiAtelier immigrant art collective. see http://antikultiatelier.blogspot.com/2015/10/antikulti-atelier-english.html. Accessed 12 July 2020.

19. Nevin Soyukaya. Damage assessment report: Conflict period and following demolition of the old city (Suriçi) of Diyarbakir. 1 August 2017. Agenda21culture, the website of the Global Network of Local and Regional Governments (UCLG). http://www.agenda21culture.net/sites/default/files/files/cities/content/surici_report_soyukaya_2017-08-01_en_smm.pdf. Accessed 21 June 2020.