Afro-Danish Talk: Colonial History and the Capacity of Art to Face the Past

Inspired by the works of Omar Victor Diop, we will reflect on the persistent influence of the colonial period – especially from a Danish perspective – and on the collective historical amnesia of the Danes.

After all, the dominant writing on history is just one of many narratives. In this light, history is not only a thing of the past. To a great extent, it is part of a living, ever-changing present, which shapes our understanding of reality, our language, and the images and narratives that define us.

The conversation will also explore the potentials that have been undermined and wasted as a result of colonisation and the transatlantic slave trade, and in subsequent historiography. Potentials and cultural riches that a rewriting of history can bring to light.

The talk elaborates the discussions sparked by the Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop in his current exhibition at Kunsten.

More about Moussa Mchangama

I have tried to fit in, have constantly changed shape, so I did not come to blows with a world that’s arranged in boxes. But that’s over now, it’s not enough to fit in. Now it’s time to belong, to create something new: a heartland, connected by values that let us be what we were born to be – people, wonderfully complex people.

This is the opening of Moussa Mchangama’s (b. 1987) book Texts About Home (2024)

Mchangama is a significant figure in the Danish social debate. As a co-founder of, and senior consultant in the consulting company In Futurum, and as an activist and author, he casts a spotlight on identity and belonging, and works actively to create inclusion, and social and climatic justice. In Texts About Home, he reflects on his own origins with a mother in Kirke Hyllinge and a father in the Comoros, which finally and gradually gained independence from colonial France in the latter half of the 20th century.

^{Photo: Liv Latricia}

More about Jeannette Ehlers

For a number of years, Jeannette Ehlers (b. 1973) has played a key role on the Danish art scene with an artistic practice that creates common awareness of the colonial era and pays tribute to the African diaspora. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, a resident of Copenhagen, and with roots in both Denmark and Trinidad, draws inspiration from her own heritage and identity. She explores Danish colonial history and highlights how the past continues to shape the present through language, images and narratives. Ehlers is particularly well known as the co-creator of the monument I Am Queen Mary, the first Danish monument dedicated to the colonial era. Ehlers’ works link continents, human destinies and socio-political relationships, giving voice to forgotten stories and connections. Exhibiting both in Denmark and abroad, Ehlers is currently represented at MAAT in Lisbon and in The Sea, an exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. At the end of November 2024, Ehlers’ solo exhibition Crossing Waters – Ripples of Tomorrow will open at Randers Art Museum.

^{Photo: Roar Studio Milano}

More about Nafisa Fiidow

The evening’s moderator, Nafisa Fiidow, MSc (Political Science) is a state administrator and commentator. As a social commentator, she has a column in the Politiken newspaper, writing humorously and perceptively about society and culture. She also appears in the TV2 news programme News & Co, where she gives astute political takes on the news stories of the day.

More about the Omar Victor Diop exhibition

Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg recently opened a special exhibition devoted to the work of the critically acclaimed Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop (b. 1980). Alluding to both past and present, Diop’s photographs spotlight prominent Africans from all over the world, whom world history has often forgotten – and black resistance in a global perspective. Read more here.

In close collaboration with the sociologist, social commentator and consultant Prince Henry Kwesi Asare, Kunsten has put together a series of events to activate the exhibition and the themes it tackles, shedding a Danish light on the exhibition.

All events related to the exhibition.

^{Photo on top: Omar Victor Diop, The Women’s War 1929 . From Liberty (2016. Courtesy © Omar Victor Diop / MAGNIN-A, Paris}