Seminar and exhibition: Colonial Conquest, Travel Writing and the Anthropocene

MACCH affiliated researcher Dr. Christian Ernsten has initiated a seminar and exhibition on the theme of Colonial Conquest, Travel Writing and the Anthropocene. The seminar will take place on 9 April 2020.

The seminar is organised by Dr. Christian Ernsten, Dr. Annemieke Klijn, conservator of Maastricht University’s Art and Heritage Committee, and Odin Essers of the University Library, in collaboration with students of the master’s programme Arts & Heritage of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

The exhibition will take place at the university’s central hall (Minderbroedersweg 4-6) and takes as its point of departure items from the University Library’s Jesuits Collection, which is an exemplary collection with the commentaries and writings of colonial travellers. Both the exhibition and seminar explore the linkages between the histories of colonial exploitation of beings, species and territories in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and the current global environmental crisis.

The exhibition reflects particularly on two finely illustrated early-18th century works from the Jesuits Collection by German travel writer Peter Kolbe (1675-1726). Kolbe’s works will be juxtaposed with the contemporary work on the Cape by renowned Dutch photographer Dirk-Jan Visser.

Photography by Dirk-Jan Visser