Penser en langues

During the European colonial period, thousands of artefacts and works of art were acquired, appropriated or looted and brought back to Europe from Africa. They are now mainly part of the collections of European museums, and many of these objects have not left the repositories since their arrival over a hundred years ago. In the context of the important and increasingly heated debates on restitution, the role of language and translation is crucial. The absence of these objects has created a linguistic vacuum in many African communities and, at the same time, they have been assigned to another language in museums' descriptive categories and contexts of meaning.

How can we talk, in an intercultural context, about objects linked to different spaces of meaning, histories and memories, and ultimately to distinct languages? What forms of translation are needed to give voice to objects through their turbulent and violent history? What practices of translation and intercultural understanding are essential in restitution efforts to reveal hidden layers of meaning? How is it possible to have a non-violent discourse about and with these objects in different linguistic and cultural contexts? What role do the methods and techniques of practical translation and translation studies play?

These questions will be addressed in a variety of formats. In collaboration with alumni of TheMuseumsLab network, translators and interdisciplinary experts from both continents, in-depth discussions will take place, highlighting historical linguistic spaces as well as the link between objects, language and the presence/absence of history.’

Conferences

25 September - Maison Heinrich Heine
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

26 September - Forum de la FMSH/EHESS
9:00 am - 5:15 pm

26 September - Maison Heinrich Heine
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

27 September – Maison Heinrich Heine
9:00 am - 12:30 pm

9:00 am - 9:15 am | Welcome address
Bettina Sund (DAAD Lecturer, EHESS/FMSH Paris)

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9:15 am - 10:15 am | Lost in Translation: The Silent Heritage and the Struggle for Provenance
Tuuda Haitula (Museums Association of Namibia) – with discussion

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10:30 am - 11:30 am | Langue de violences et langues du silence : quels corps, quels objets, quelles voix traduit-on ?
Sika Fakambi (translator) – with discussion

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11:30 am - 12:30 pm | Before Restitution: creating access through language and method
Benjamina Efua Dadzie (University of East Anglia) – with discussion

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2:00 pm - 3:00 pm | Locked In and Out
Film Essay (35 min.), 2020, by Priya Basil (author, activist, curator), EN

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3:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Objects Talk Back
Online discussion with Priya Basil (author, activist, curator)

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4:15 pm - 5:15 pm | Epistemic Violence in the Humanities and the Quest for New Relational Ethics: Matters of Language and Restitution
Prof. Dr. Vera-Simone Schulz (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg/Kunsthistorisches Institut in
Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut) – with discussion

(The talks, in the indicated language, will be chaired by Bettina Sund [DAAD Lecturer, EHESS/FMSH Paris].Only contributions in French will be translated into English. Contributions in English will not be translated into French.)

This event is supported by the Federal Foreign Office (AA), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Fondation de l’Allemagne – Maison Heinrich Heine (MHH), in cooperation with the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), and TheMuseumsLab.