Lives of Objects

Pamela Tulizo (Goma, 1993) is a trained journalist and artistic photographer who runs the cultural project space Tulizo Elle Space for women and girls in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Theo Eshetu has worked in media art since 1982 exploring various formats from essay-films to large-scale video installations that explore how electronic media shape and inform global perceptions. 

This new series of events, Lives of Objects: Virtual Gatherings, aims to form a platform for exchange and discussion about the decades-long and ongoing efforts for the recovery of looted cultural heritage and ancestral belongings to their countries and communities of origin. Curated by Sofia Lovegrove, these Virtual Gatherings seek to dissect the multiple meanings of restitution and stimulate active discussion amongst cultural workers, researchers, artists and a community of participants. Moderated by Sherry Davis, the gatherings will consider and interrogate the complex issues at the crux of restitution work, exploring a range of African and Diasporic initiatives and research that offer alternative and critical ways of thinking and doing such work. 
 

Practicing Freedom is a transcultural research and artistic project which aims to harness ongoing conversations and initiatives within the overriding concepts of decoloniality and restitution. Working with cultural practitioners, researchers, museum professionals, and existing collaborative initiatives and research programmes, we envision Practicing Freedom to consist of workshops, residencies, panel discussions, lectures, podcasts, artistic interventions, and a final exhibition and publication which will tie together the numerous threads of the project. We are currently thinking of Practicing Freedom as Phase 1 of the Lives of Objects greater project. 

This is the first podcast episode of the Lives of Objects series, which is an extension of our Practicing Freedom project. We invited eminent artists Gala Porras-Kim and James Webb to discuss the ways in which we think about the lives of objects through an artistic lens, particularly those that carry historical, socio-political and spiritual importance.