This two-day international conference, Unfinished Histories: Art, Memory, and the Visual Politics of Coloniality, takes as its starting point the view of colonialism as a radically unfinished body of histories, with major ramifications in the present day. Attentive to colonial logics and their durability in contemporary culture, the conference seeks to examine the role art and visual culture have played, and keep playing, in (re)producing colonial histories and attending to the coloniality of the present. While the aftermath of Danish colonialism in the Caribbean is a focal point of departure, the conference invites perspectives that engage with the visual politics of coloniality in a global context, including but not limited to Africa and the North Atlantic.

The conference will take place at the University of Copenhagen and The Royal Danish Library in conjunction with the visual culture exhibition Blind spots. Images of the Danish West Indies colony, curated by the conference organizers Mathias Danbolt and Mette Kia Krabbe Meyer together with Sarah Giersing. The conference is organized as part of Mathias Danbolt’s research project Colorblind? Theorizing Race in Danish Art and Visual Culture at the University of Copenhagen, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and the Sapere Aude: DFF Research Talent Grant. Additional conference funding from Ny Carlsberg Foundation, Carlsberg Foundation, and the Danish Arts Council.