Reworking National History
The Representation of Power and its Subsequent Overturning in Relation to Postcolonial Art in Italy
abstract
This presentation aims to analyse the representation of power and its subsequent overturning, in relation to postcolonial art in Italy. Works such as Pays Barbare by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, Alessandra Ferriniʼs Negotiating Amnesia or The Return of the Axum Obelisk by Theo Esthetu, use editing process and the video medium to decolonize images through artistic postproduction of archival material related to imperialist visual propaganda. In this way, the same picture is placed and recontextualized within another picture, leading the image to take on a different meaning, calling into question its relationship to power.
Keywords: Fascism • Italy • Postcolonialism • Decoloniality • Contemporary art