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The conference 'Decolonize North' focused on questions of decoloniality and its meaning for the particularities of North Europe today. The conference will address a range of topics in relation to contemporary colonial forms and what it means to be a colonial power today, inner-nordic colonialization of Sámi and Inuit, reflections on decolonizing terminologies, white supremacy and how it is reflected within Scandinavian art and architecture context. Furthermore intersections between gender politics, ecology, economy, border politics, migration, art and architecture will feed into the debates and the presentations. The conference is initiated by Konsthall C, Stockholm in collaboration with Center for Research on Rasism at Uppsala University and Royal Art Academy in Stockholm. 

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Embedded in the programme, a series of spatial configurations created by Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Course students use the exhibition format as a support structure for lectures, discussions and gatherings. These spatial interventions aim to destabilize the traditional format of knowledge production and interaction in exhibitions and academic conferences. The elements that constitute a conference – speakers, audience, projection, audio, registration, coffee break – become the raw materials for an exhibition. Both the white cube and the conference room are often thought of as ‘neutral’ spaces, however their spatial configuration - from the neat artworks aligned on a white wall to the image of the speaker-on-a-podium pitched against a passive audience -  reveals a specific power relation which ties into the disciplinary architectures of schools, churches, and patriarchal homes. In so doing, we underline the fact that, far from being natural or neutral, space is a historical and political construction reproducing social reality. In other words - space is politics.

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The spatial intervention at Muralen creates a situation in which remaining neutral is simply not an option, anywhere. The supposed neutral setting of a conference with its rows of equal seating is substituted by different kinds of seating borrowed from the university office, classrooms and libraries. Different groups of chairs resemble different neighbourhoods, compelling conference attendees to make a decision if they want to sit.

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Decolonize North / 7-8 December 2018

Initiated by Konsthall C, in collaboration with Center for Research on Racism at Uppsala University and Decolonizing Architecture

(Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm)

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