SCREENING/DISCUSSION/EXHIBITION: RESTITUTION?

Restitution? – From artefact to land, searching for identity.

Monday, 7 April 2025 | 5:30 for 6:00pm

Alliance Française Durban, 22 Sutton Crescent, Morningside

RSVP is essential: email admin@durban.alliance.org.za or call +27 31 312 9582

IFAS-Research and the Alliance Française of Durban are pleased to invite you to the screening of Restitution?, a documentary by Nora Philippe (83min, 2021), which explores the troubling story of the African artwork that fills European museums, and whose return is now being demanded by their countries of origin. Snatched up like trophies by colonizers, the works fertilized European art before acquiring recognition as universal masterpieces on their own right. But in Africa, their absence is still traumatic.

The screening will be followed by a discussion about the links between artefact, land and identity, with:

• Sophie Chevalier, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens (France), visiting researcher at IFAS-Research this year, and head of the research centre “Habiter le monde”,
• Scout Fynn, multidisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural practitioner based in Durban,
• Robin Moodley, Durban-based artist, designer and farmer.

The event will also feature an exhibition of some of Robin Moodley’s artwork.