2Unravel the order of the view

From a historical and legal point of view, slavery and colonisation did not just establish a relationship of political and economic domination. They also produced images, narratives and categories, ways of classifying, ranking and representing peoples, that engendered the systems whose effects are still felt today. This is what may be called the “coloniality of the visible”, or ways of seeing that are inherited from the colonial order, still present in the collective imagination and in our institutions.

Unravelling the order of the view is not about wiping out the past or accusing the present but seeking to reveal and shift the frames of analysis. The artists presented here have been working from the contemporary to de-construct these representations that remain active in our imaginations and our practices.

Making these filters perceptible involves broadening the view; in other words, accepting to allow the fullness of lives to be seen.

The works gathered in this section, including those by Euridice Zaituna Kala, Roméo Mivekannin, William Adjété Wilson, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Rayan Yasmineh, and the Chevalme sisters, seek to overturn the images inherited from history. They cause the erased presences from the archives to resurface, they reveal the scenes of hidden domination in everyday objects, they establish presence where bodies were classified, measured and reduced to silence.

These gestures are a response to a story. Over time, photographs, illustrations and narratives contributed to legitimising discrimination, colonisation, segregation and persecution, shaping ways of seeing and thinking.

The artists open a breach in this visual order, revealing the everyday violence of societies in which racism and discrimination continue to hold a place.

The stereotypes inherited from colonial history still abound in political speeches, the media and ordinary language. Through the force of repetition, they mould ways of seeing and seeing oneself. Not only do these images influence the way in which others are seen, but also the way in which the people in question can end up perceiving themselves.

Shifting the view can therefore have two meanings. It may mean closing one’s eyes to not see the discrimination running through society. But it can also mean denying these imposed images, transforming them and taking back control over one’s own representation.

The works presented here explore this tension. They shift the point of view, replaying violent or stigmatising images to transform the meaning. What served to discredit or exclude becomes a tool for affirmation, resistance or reappropriation of one’s history.

Simple, everyday gestures. Bonds of affection. Forms of solidarity and struggle. The works gathered here show people who exist; rich, complex lives spanning relationships, choices and commitments.

Love and solidarity trace another way of being in the world: a way of binding oneself to others, of taking care, living together and making a community. This idea meets the thinking of the American intellectual and feminist icon bell hooks, for whom love can be a force of resistance against relations of domination. She speaks of the “oppositional gaze” to designate the refusal to be seen through the eyes of those who dominate.