Zabunyan noted that this was also around the time when the Black Lives Matter movement began picking up speed in some cities throughout the world. Meghna Singh (2020), both post-doctoral fellows at Hull University and based in Cape Town. At the end of 2018, Associate Professor Shawn Sobers, UWE, Bristol, also became involved in the project as well as Dr Daniela Franca Joffe (2019) and Dr. Nevertheless, they are entangled and have unbreakable links to one another because of a past that was built for centuries on the colonial and slave experience.”ĭuring this early period in 2016-2018, in which they more specifically detailed the project and surveyed cities for their field research, she and her colleagues, Associate Professor Nick Shepperd at Aarhus University, and Marine Schütz, Post-doctoral Fellow at Rennes 2, met with many young artists and historians who knew a great deal about the artwork and the contemporary local contexts. “Marseille, Bristol and Cape Town are cities that each have their own culture, their own history, their own memory. They held many open discussions and exchanges on each of these particular facets. When asked about the choice of these cities, she noted that there were many factors they took into account, like how each city has been influenced, since colonialism, by factors like slavery, immigration, the cultural experiences and interactions of the communities that have resided there, and the ongoing social dialogue and activism around similar questions. They ended up agreeing upon the final selection of Cape Town, Bristol and Marseille in which to conduct further research. The researchers in her group surveyed the artistic works in a number of cities, European and non-European. Her group treats important questions on artistic works in cities, like, for example: What is the point of view that one occupies and what is the relationship to the symbol that one chooses to consider? What are the modalities of reception of an object, or an image or monument, particularly when considering the effects of the historical domination on populations with their own long and rich histories? What narratives can we draw from these works? And how has this informed our thinking? Zabunyan is head of the project’s work package 5, entitled 'Artists and Citizens', which focuses exclusively on artistic practices and the ways in which artists have considered colonial history and the urban context. Using a horizontal science diplomacy approach between cities and through the creation of new links and partnerships with artists, museums and civic groups, ECHOES seeks to foster new future-oriented forms of intercultural dialogues and representations. The program is split into 6 different work packages, ranging from: theory and methodology Europeanizing colonial heritage city museums and multiple colonial pasts entangled cities artists and citizens and management coordination and impact. Instead of holding on to long-established patterns and ways of seeing things, the project explores how we might reshape the traditional narratives in favor of an approach which takes into account post-colonial understandings to foster new forms of progressive heritage practices.įunded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program, it draws on the expertise of leading international researchers and works with universities and other cultural partners in over 9 countries. At the heart of the matter, finding a way to change the way we see, discuss and explore certain elements of what is often considered as ‘traditional heritage’, specifically in terms of cultural artefacts, public art, museums, etc. Echoes is a European research project that is leading the way on exploring sensitive issues related to the history of colonialism and its legacies within the framework of current heritage debates.

Project echoes of the end