COLUMN addresses the colonial heritage of universities in Europe and beyond. By developing new curatorial practices and artistic collaborations around anthropological collections, botanical gardens, the campus, and intangible legacies, the project places academic heritage at the centre of Europe’s decolonisation. In this project, universities, designers, and artists from both Europe and former colonies collaboratively lead work packages and heritage interventions.

PROJECT OUTLINE

Historically, universities have been instrumental in promoting and shaping European culture, knowledge, and values, including democracy, human dignity, freedom, human rights, and equality, as a global project. They have also been leading institutions in promoting dialogue and building strategic alliances between the Global North and the Global South in the fields of science, heritage, and cultural and creative industries.

In recent years, universities and museums in Europe have increasingly developed innovative approaches to address the colonial entanglements in their collecting practices, material legacies, understandings of national and transnational identities, and the production of knowledge.

However, unfinished conversations with former colonies about colonial legacies in and beyond Europe continue to hinder cooperation and exchange. COLUMN brings together partners from the creative industries, artists from former colonies, seven European universities, and partner universities from the Global South to rethink, reframe, and refresh approaches to postcolonial arts, culture and heritage.

MISSION

Over the past decade, universities have increasingly invested in their cultural heritage as a means to build bridges with society. They are facilitating access through renovated university museums, botanical gardens, and key campus areas. While enhancing the public profile of the university is urgent, the university is also struggling to address its difficult colonial past. COLUMN aims to empower universities worldwide with the confidence to confront their dissonant legacies.

Focusing on four pilot interventions that apply new collaborative and decolonial curatorial practices, COLUMN will lead the development of policies, recommendations, and best practices for new collaborations around European university heritage through strategic partnerships within and beyond the EU borders.

COLUMN bridges knowledge production and creative arts practices, deepening understanding of university heritage. It promotes equitable approaches to colonialism through dialogue with Global South partners, advancing cultural cooperation. Through its outputs, the project challenges existing scholarly consensus, heritage practices, and policies.

TEAMS & COLLABORATIONS

COLUMN involves beneficiaries from Suriname (Anton de Kom University of Suriname), the Netherlands (Utrecht University and Studio Louter), Austria (University of Graz), South Africa (University of Pretoria), Switzerland (University of Geneva), the Czech Republic (Charles University), Italy (University of Bologna), and Denmark (Aarhus University). These partners together lead the project and shape future university heritage practices.

In addition to these beneficiaries, the project facilitates collaborations with scholars from Mexico (Ciesas), the United Kingdom (University of Liverpool), and Vietnam (Vietnamese Academy for Social Sciences). Throughout the project, five artists and/or curators from former European colonies (Indonesia, Suriname, Ethiopia, South Africa and Congo) are included to enhance artist-based research and conversations.

The project is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). The project also benefits from support by the Coimbra Group, an alliance of the oldest European Universities.

PROJECT COMPONENTS – WORK PACKAGES

COLUMN consists of a series of work packages that cluster in seven sub-projects that together address colonial university heritage. The sub-projects “Histories of Colonial Science” and “Heritage practices of Coloniality” develop a conceptual baseline for the project and an inventory of existing research and practices. Building on this research, we test and design new practices in our four interventions: “The Garden”, “The Collection”, “The Campus” and “Intangible Legacies”. In the final sub-project, “Policy and Exploitation”, we develop tools and guidelines for a new university heritage landscape.

COLUMN PARTNERS

Utrecht University
Utrecht University
Studio Louter
Studio Louter
Anton de Kom University of Suriname
Anton de Kom University of Suriname
University of Graz
University of Graz
University of Pretoria
University of Pretoria
University of Geneva
University of Geneva
Charles University
Charles University
University of Bologna
University of Bologna
Aarhus University
Aarhus University

COLUMN FUNDERS

European Union
European Union
Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation
Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation
Contact Us

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Start typing and press Enter to search