19/02/2025
We are thrilled to announce the release of the Decolonizing the Gaze project as a supplement to Dossier 100 of Africa e Mediterraneo on Restitutions. Initiated by Caterina Pecchioli, the project involves B&W-Black&White as both a cultural and media partner, actively engaging its community.
"Decolonizing the Gaze: The Colonial Heritage of Italian and International Fashion Design and Its Impact on the Collective Imagination" is an open reflection on the relationship between identity, fashion, and colonialism, stemming from the examination of clothing, fabrics, and accessories from the colonial era held in archives and museum collections in Italy and the Netherlands, which involved Afro-descendant stylists and artists, and fashion designers from countries with a colonial history.
It is featured both within the magazine with an article co-written by and Enrica Picarelli , as well as a Fanzine showcasing the visual outcome of the project, by in collaboration with Victor R. B. Abbey-Hart . The first phase of the project was held at the Former Colonial Museum at Museum of Civilizations in Rome. The research focused on the objects of the section of the "Samples Exhibition" of the Former Colonial Museum of Rome, kept in archives made accessible only from 2020 onwards. Items made in between Italy and Africa to be sold at National and International colonial fairs, these objects hide forms of colonial exploitation and commercial propaganda.
Caterina Pecchioli together with Semhal Tsegaye Abebe, Nosakhare Ekhator and Victor Abbey-Hart, visited the collection of the former Colonial Museum, and conducted a participatory workshop concentrated on the observation and study of clothing and accessories of the collection. The publications reports the visual output of the debate triggered by the impact with this complex tangible material. The project was supported by the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture.
