ping!
Memória de Elefante
Memória de Elefante
The First Portuguese Colonial Exhibition took place in 1934 in the gardens of the Palácio de Cristal. Its ex-libris was a large sculpture of an elephant, displayed on the roof of the Palácio de Cristal, which at the time was called the Palácio das Colónias. Honouring the elephant as a symbol and a real animal with a great capacity to retain and transmit knowledge, Memória de Elefante revisits the material culture, archives and colonial reminiscences associated with the city of Porto through workshops, tours and talks with artists, activists and educators with the aim of discussing the implications and legacy of colonialism.
Thursday, May 29th, at 7pm
Depth of Field: Lecture by Malcom Ferdinand
The world is in the midst of a storm that has shaped the history of modernity along a double rupture: on the one hand, an ecological fracture driven by a technocratic and capitalist civilisation that has led to the continuous devastation of the earth's ecosystems and its human and non-human communities, and on the other hand, a rupture installed by colonisation and Western imperialism that has led to racial slavery, the domination of indigenous peoples and women in particular.
In his book "A Decolonial Ecology - Thinking from the Caribbean World" (2019 Political Ecology Foundation Prize), Malcolm Ferdinand challenges this double fracture by thinking from the Caribbean world. The slave ship reveals the inequalities that continue during the storm: some are shackled in the hold or even thrown overboard at the first gust of wind. Drawing on empirical and theoretical research in the Caribbean, Ferdinand develops the concept of 'decolonial ecology', linking environmentalism to political struggles against (post)colonial domination, structural racism and misogynistic practices. In the face of the ecological storm emerging from the basement of modernity, this book proposes a reflection on the construction of a common world, shaped by humans and non-humans who can live together in justice.
As part of the Memoria de Elefante axis of ping! it dialogues with the exhibition Depth of Field by artist Mónica de Miranda, presenting a lecture by Malcom Ferdinand, one of today's most important thinkers.
