Talks

Paper at the Museum Why? Practice, Agency and Knowledge in the Art Museum conference, co-organised by PASS - Center for Practice-based Art Studies and the Nordic museum network Museum Why?, showing how the exhibition of art at the Iziko South African National Gallery was discussed and redefined in response to demands for equal access and more diverse representation. The paper analyses the critique of the three white curators behind the Our Lady-exhibition (2016), expressed by a group of South African contemporary artists, as well as members from the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce, who challenged the legitimacy of the curators to represent South Africa's diversity of voices, protested against the treatment of victims of gender-specific violence, and criticised the continued exclusion of subaltern parts of the population. Based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in and around the gallery from 2016-18, in relation to my PhD thesis Demanding Recognition: Curatorial Challenges in the Exhibition of Art from South Africa (2019), the paper presents the different positions expressed in the public debate surrounding the exhibition and shows that the museum space continuous to reinforce for some the feeling of belonging and for others the feeling of exclusion: the art gallery remains a place, where it is easier for white, well-educated voices to speak and be heard. However, the protests against the National Gallery in Cape Town challenged and created a public debate that made the institution recognise its privileged position in society and made it incorporate a more diverse plurality of voices.

How are colonial legacies dealt with in museums and botanic gardens? With examples from my anthropological fieldwork in museums and botanical gardens in Oxford, London and Los Angeles, this double lecture address some of the dilemmas that are discussed internationally within the museum world and its associated research environments.

Panel discussion and artist performance fostering a visual and conceptual dialogue on ethnobotany across diverse cultural landscapes. Ethno-Botanic Resonance was organised by CREATE, the Research Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the London Metropolitan University, in partnership with the Liliesleaf Trust UK and PF25 cultural projects, and in collaboration with the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Talk presenting my journal article 'The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew' (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

Talk presenting my chapter ‘Diversifying Public Commemorations in Cape Town and Copenhagen’ published in the anthology De-Commemoration: Removing Statues and Renaming Places (2023) ed. by S. Gensburger and J. Wüstenberg, Berghahn Books.

Talk in the lecture series Kunstens Globale Kredsløb based on my doctoral research on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Rutledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) ed. O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen and the journal article 'Koloniale Klassifikationer: Kunstbegrebet til Forhandling på Museer I Sydafrika' (2021).

Talk presenting my chapter ‘Ajouter et soustraire : décoloniser les espaces urbains au Cap et à Copenhague’ published in the anthology Dé-commémoration : Quand le monde déboulonne les statues et renomme des rues (2023) ed. by S. Gensburger and J. Wüstenberg, Éditions Fayard.

Talk presenting my chapter about the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town at the book launch of the anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) ed. O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen, Routledge.

Talk at the PRM Research Seminar presenting my postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation, as well as my doctoral research on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Rutledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) ed. O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen.

Talk presenting my chapter about the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town at the book launch of the anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) ed. O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen, Routledge.

Talk at the Linacre College Tuesday Seminar presenting my postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Online talk at the NordGlob Seminar Series presenting my postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Panel debate at the Golden Days Festival in Copenhagen presenting my doctoral research on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Rutledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) ed. O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen.

Online talk in the Department of Continued Education course Decolonisation at the Pitt Rivers Museum presenting my postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.