Forgetting the Colonial Present: Europe's New Walls

Abstract

Abstract:The walls and fences that have been sprouting up all over the EU in response to the arrival of thousands of refugees in 2015 materialize the construction (and defense) of a fantasmatic European sovereignty and, at the same time, uncover a largely unrecognized colonial past still exerting pressure on the present. Unpacking these dynamics, the article looks at the work of the German art collective Center for Political Beauty and photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer as they link the memory of the Berlin Wall to contemporary responses to migration and, in so doing, utilize the wall as a mnemonic screen, revealing the enduring coloniality of contemporary borders. By making these "forgotten relations" palpable and thinkable, the artworks disrupt a fantasy of racial exteriority, involuntarily projecting the persistence of colonial legacies.