Culture Lost and Learned by Heart

In her project Culture Lost and Learned by Heart, the artist Adji Dieye examines the epistemological construct of the archive. Drawing on material from the iconographic collection of the National Archives of Senegal, the project questions notions such as archival contents and the narrative construction of the past in a bid to reveal the violence embedded in the archival institution and its seemingly neutral content. By revisiting the taxonomized content of the Senegalese archive and bringing it face to face with additional photographs taken by the artist herself, Dieye reflects on the archival material, using it as a vehicle for investigating the continuity of our colonial past and present. The book, which includes texts by Emmanuel Iduma, is published as part of the C/O Berlin Talent Awards 2021 and accompanies the exhibition Adji Dieye: Culture Lost and Learned by Heart at C/O Berlin. The C/O Berlin Talent Award is made possible by the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.

Adji Dieye, b. 1991 in Italy, works as an interdisciplinary artist, shuttling between Milan, Zurich, and Dakar.

Emmanuel Iduma, b. 1989 in Nigeria, is a writer and critic operating in New York and Lagos.