Legacy of Colonialism || ARTSCIENCE Dialogue II

Amsterdam Sustainability Institute

Explore how historical exploitation and social hardships shape our environment and our growth

VU Art Science Gallery, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Life of Plants Public Programme

VU ART SCIENCE gallery and ASI will bring artists and researchers together in a new series of ART SCIENCE dialogues. The dialogues form part of the public program of the exhibition Life of Plants, which focuses on our relationship with plants.

In this ART SCIENCE dialogue Oscar Santillán, Lisa Ausic and Pepijn Brandon will examine the complexities of colonialism in relation to our experience of nature. The dispossession of land and botanical practices are part of the colonial legacy, but how are they connected? Santillán’s work, Forecast, (on display at the gallery) symbolizes the link between colonial botany and modern environmental destruction. Illustrating the continuity between historical botanical exploitation and the current deterioration of the planet, the metal structure holds six monitors and a 'colonial garden', featuring plants from European colonies. Colonialism has left enduring imprints on our societies, cultures, and ecosystems, that still impact how we interact with and perceive nature. Addressing these impacts requires acknowledging that colonial powers exploited natural resources for economic gain. In addition, promoting sustainable practices, respecting diverse perspectives on nature would be steps forward to a more harmonious relationship with the natural world.This discussion will be moderated by professor Katja Kwastek. Eventbrite registration is not required to attend; even if the event is full, we encourage you to join us in person

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________Oscar Santillán, visual artist, employs a transdisciplinary approach connecting scientific fields, cosmologies, and non-human perspectives. Through his work he explores lost science episodes, suppressed colonial knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and non-Western sci-fi, fostering unconventional narratives. Santillán collaborates with scientists, programmers, indigenous thinkers, anthropologists, and biologists, shaping his practice to navigate the emerging future and understand the complex conflicts on our planet. Prof. dr. Pepijn Brandon, professor of Global Economic and Social History at VU Amsterdam and senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History, is renowned for his work on the intertwined histories of capitalism and mass violence. He focuses on war, dispossession, and slavery. Currently, his research delves into the global comparative perspective of land dispossession in the Dutch Empire. Lisa Ausic is a PhD candidate at the department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at VU Amsterdam. Her work deals with the poetics and politics of human-vegetal relations and multispecies intimacies in contexts of (post)colonial violence in the Peruvian Amazon. In her current doctoral research, she traces the processes that make Shipibo-Konibo herbalism into a mode of cosmopolitical negotiation and anti-colonialist resistance in the context of an extractive-capitalist ayahuasca tourism industry.

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Legacy of Colonialism || ARTSCIENCE Dialogue II

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Legacy of Colonialism || ARTSCIENCE Dialogue II

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