Alexander Etkind: Russian Colonialism, Russian Racism: What is Special About it, and What isn’t?
Russian colonialism, Russian racism: What is special about it, and what isn’t?’ In this talk, Alexander Etkind will discuss Russia’s imperial experiences and the ways they were expressed, reflected, and criticized in the Russian visual art. Developing his concept of internal colonization, Etkind will demonstrate its value for understanding contemporary events, and also its limits. Talking mostly about the imperial times but making connections to the current problems of the Russian Federation, Etkind will show the role of Russian visual art as an ambivalent tool that both affirmed the imperial drives of the Russian state, and deconstructed them.
Alexander Etkind joined the Department of International Relations in 2022. He previously taught at the European University Institute at Florence (2013-2022), the University of Cambridge (2004-2013), and the European University at St Petersburg (1999-2004). Alexander defended his PhD in cultural history in Helsinki (1998), and since then supervised more 30 PhD students. His current interests are the political aspects of the Anthropocene, global decarbonization and security in Eastern Europe. In the past, he was involved in memory studies, European intellectual history, empires and decolonization, and various aspects of Russian history. A Fellow of King’s College Cambridge, Etkind was the Leader of Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine, a European research project (2010-13). He is the author of Eros of the Impossible. The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia (Westview Press 1996); Internal Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience (Polity Press 2011); Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied (Stanford University Press 2013); Roads not Taken. An Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt. (Pittsburgh University Press 2017); and Nature’s Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources (Polity Press 2021). Alexander coedited Remembering Katyn (Polity 2012), Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (Palgrave 2013) and Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia (Routledge 2017). His new book, Russia against Modernity, is released by Polity in April 2023.
Lecture was held at the following symposium in Prague:
MAKE VOICES BE HEARD
Decolonial reflections on power and racism
in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia
December 15. and 16. 2023
Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague
Symposium program:
Introduction by Noemi Smolik and Adam Vackar
Madina Tlostanova, keynote
Joanna Warsza, keynote
Alexander Etkind, keynote
FATA Collective (Jeanna Kolesova, Keto Gorgadze)
DAVRA research group (M. Joldybek, Z. Mirzalieva, S. Ismailova)
Furqat Palvan-Zade
David Tišer
Alexandra Garmazhapova
Peter Kašpar/Denis Kozerawski
Roundtable moderated by Jörg Heiser
For some years now, questions of colonialism, its legacy and the way how to address this legacy have been central themes of contemporary art. It is noticeable that while artists and theoreticians from North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Arab countries are represented in exhibitions, symposia and debates on this topic, representatives from countries that were subject to the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union are simply not present.
The war in Ukraine has not only exposed Moscow's colonial claims but also revealed an ambivalent relationship between Western countries and those in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. While Western countries sought to address the security concerns arising from Moscow's colonial claims, insufficient attention was paid to the security, respect, and self-determination needs of these countries.
Therefore, it is necessary to ask: Why is it that in the West, hardly any attention is paid to the experiences of these countries? Why a supposedly binding global knowledge about colonialism and racism is produced without the inclusion of the experiences of the people from these regions, as witnessed by the absence of representatives from these countries in the current postcolonial debate? It is time for the people of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia to raise their voices.
The symposium in Prague, initiated by Hope Recycling Station and the working group it has launched at CCA Berlin in spring 2023, has set itself the task of making these voices heard.