Contemporary Circulations, Interpretations and (Re-)Appropriations of Colonial Objects, Sites and Images

Panel Convenor(s)

• OK

  Olivia Killias

  ISEK/ University of Zurich, Switzerland
• SJ

  Sophie Junge

  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany

Panel Chair(s)

• OK

  Olivia Killias

  ISEK/ University of Zurich, Switzerland

Panel Discussant(s)

• LY

  Lauren Yapp

  Brown University, United States

Presenter(s)

• AS

  Alexander Supartono

  Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
• SJ

  Sophie Junge

  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany
• RV

  Remco Vermeulen

  Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
• TH

  Tedy Harnawan

  Independent researcher, Indonesia
• AH

  Arifah Arum Candra Hayuningsih

  Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia

In recent years, the question of the restitution of colonial objects as well as the (non-)accessibility of colonial image collections held in European museums has garnered wide public attention (see e.g. Sarr & Savoy, 2019; van Beurden, 2022). At the same time, processes of digitalization have democratized access to (digitalized) colonial archives, allowing for the unprecedented transnational circulation of colonial images, and thereby raising new questions of ownership and authorship, and complexifying power relations (see e.g. Supartono & Moschovi, 2020). Additionally, the digital availability of archives has also created new interpretive frameworks – be it private memory contexts, amateur history clubs or artistic engagements with historical objects and images (see Junge, Ouwehand & Supartono, 2021). Concomitantly to these processes, urban vestiges of colonialism in Southeast Asia have been variously redefined as heritage sites, places of consumption and leisure, but also as places allowing for raising critical awareness (Sastramidjaja, 2014; see also Yapp, 2020; Colombijn, 2022). In this panel at the ICAS Conference in Surabaya, we want to explore new avenues for researching contemporary interpretations and (re-)appropriations of colonial objects, sites, and images from an interdisciplinary perspective, and with a particular focus on contexts that relate to Indonesia. In doing so, we want to examine what ‘the colonial’ has come to mean in contemporary engagements with sites, objects and images marked as ‘colonial’ (see Stoler & Strassler, 2000) in and beyond Indonesia today.

Presentations:

• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  From Archaeological Document to Souvenir from the Colony and Back: the Social Life of Javanese Antiquity Photographs
  

  Presenter: Alexander Supartono – Edinburgh Napier University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Activating the City of Surabaya – Historical Photographs in Indonesian Museum Contexts
  

  Presenter: Sophie Junge – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Dutch Colonial Urban Spaces in Postcolonial Indonesian Cities
  

  Presenter: Remco Vermeulen – Erasmus University Rotterdam
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  The Last Colonial Graveyard: Caring for the Material Remainders of Colonialism in Magelang
  

  Presenter: Tedy Harnawan – Independent researcher
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Beyond Historical Artefacts: Material Remainders of the Indentured Labour History of the Javanese Diaspora in New Caledonia
  

  Presenter: Arifah Arum Candra Hayuningsih – Gadjah Mada University