As part of the exhibition “Panorama of the Congo. Unravelling the past with virtual reality”, the talk “Colonial Heritage and Decolonisation: how to do it and with whom?” will take place at Museu Nacional de História Natural e Ciência, at 5.30pm on 9 May.

Paul Mathieu and Alfred Bastien’s Panorama of the Congo (1913), part of the collections of the War Heritage Institute in Belgium, is an example of the current debate on the need for reparations to African countries that were European colonies. Rather than the repatriation of pieces from collections or compensation, reparation is a long-standing, open-ended process that requires a re-contextualisation of heritage and the involvement of the respective African communities in curatorial research. This debate will focus on these issues based on the decolonial work done with Congo Panorama by the Congo VR research project (FilmEU), which involved historical research on this immersive device and on the Congo Free State, as well as artistic research with various Congolese artists.

With:
Alberto Oliveira Pinto, historian
Ana David Mendes, exhibition curator
Judite Alves, Deputy Director of MUHNAC-ULisboa

For more information: https://www.museus.ulisboa.pt/node/680