Joanna Warsza: Eastern European Coloniality without Colonies
Eastern Europe’s historical and symbolic position as part of Europe but not exactly—its relative absence in discourse equating Europe with Western Europe—complicates the asymmetry of the so-called Global North and Global South, to which some propose adding the Global East. As much as Europe’s violent colonial mindset has been shared and embodied across the whole continent, its colonial past has not—because the fundamentals of it were first exercised locally, mostly in its semi-peripheral Eastern and Southern parts, which submitted to Western exploitation, and then perpetuated further. Thus Eastern Europe shares the condition of being complicit in the system of imperialism and colonization, while at the same time serving as a first training ground for its implementation; in effect, it has been both racializing and racialized.
Joanna Warsza is program Director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm, and an interdependent curator, editor and writer. She was a co-curator of the Polish-Romani pavilion at the 59 Venice Biennale with the work of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas. Joanna Warsza is an interdependent curator interested in how art functions politically and socially outside the white cubes. She was the Artistic Director of Public Art Munich 2018, curator of the Georgian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale and associate curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale.
Joanna Warsza's lecture was par of the following symposium held 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.