Special section editorial

Challenging legacies in Post-Colonial and Post-Socialist notions of place

Abstract

Political oppression has been experienced in many parts of the world, notably through colonialism in Africa, India and South America, as well as socialist oppression in Central and Eastern Europe. In the aftermath of regime changes in many of these geographies, there is a shared move towards art practices articulating Post-Colonial or Post-Socialist identities. Such identities are in turn often related to culturally informed notions of place existing in the social imaginary, in representational discourse or in lived interactions with places. Using comparable strategies, and often working with intersecting concerns across geographies, artists who work with notions of place might actively counter or interrogate historic understandings of the contexts they engage with. Such artistic practices could also be seen as an attempt to create an “authentic” expression of national belonging, responding to the problematic residue of cultural objects, images and ideologies perpetuated (or retained) in a Post-Colonial/Post-Socialist milieu.