Temporary monuments, permanent questions: curatorial strategies for contested heritage

Knowledge transfer discussion, within the project ”Nordic Insights: addressing cancel culture in public spaces through artistic dialogue and cultural innovation” Lisa Rosendahl, curator, Associated Professor of Exhibition Studies at Oslo National Academy of the Arts Oana Nasui, cultural researcher The professional conversation with Lisa Rosendahl from Oslo National Academy of the Arts explores curatorial strategies for addressing contested colonial heritage through temporary interventions. Gothenburg's 400-year anniversary celebration presented an official narrative of Sweden as a prosperous trade port and "window to the Atlantic," but Swedish iron shipped through this harbor was actually a key product in the transatlantic slave trade—used for warships, weapons, shackles, and as currency for enslaved people. This history remained almost entirely absent from public discourse, visible only through racist artworks from the 1920s-40s on "the French plot of land" where Sweden and France exchanged territory for a Caribbean island. The discussion explores how colonial history hides in plain sight because we've been trained not to see it, Sweden's "innocent" image versus its shadow side, and whether the monument form remains relevant today. The "Possible Monuments?" project engaged artists to propose commemoration strategies, including performative recurring monuments that acknowledge history is constantly reread in relationship to the present. Key questions emerge: who initiates monument projects matters profoundly, there are no generic answers about stakeholder engagement, removing contested monuments risks erasing problems in our history, and recurring temporality offers an in-between point that tracks understanding over time rather than fixating statements about the past. The white cube exhibition concept itself embodies colonial ideology—the idea of empty space where you erase and rebuild mirrors territorial thinking. Chapters 0:00 Introduction: Lisa Rosendahl and Gothenburg Biennial 2:03 Gothenburg's 400-year anniversary and the hidden colonial narrative 4:00 Swedish iron in the transatlantic slave trade 6:06 The French plot of land: Sweden's Caribbean island exchange 7:05 No signage, only racist artworks as colonial traces 8:36 Fairy-tale aesthetics depicting violent colonial confrontations 9:02 Contemporary artists responding to hidden heritage 10:02 Sweden's "innocent" image and its shadow side 11:16 The link between social democracy and colonial economy 12:04 Possible Monuments? - a discursive project 12:55 Black Lives Matter context and monument removal debates 13:00 Is the monument form still relevant today? 15:24 Artist proposals: should there be a monument here? 17:09 Jamie Robert's soil exchange proposal 18:03 Performative recurring monuments with school children 19:08 Recurring temporality: between permanent and temporary 20:09 History constantly reread in relationship to the present 21:04 Black Lives Matter and toppling sculptures 22:07 The paradox: removing voices or erasing problems? 29:49 White cube ideology and colonial violence 30:13 Empty space, erasure, and territorial thinking 31:06 Who initiates monuments matters 32:21 No generic answers: depends on what's being commemorated 33:08 Lisa's position: responsibility without authority 34:12 Who should we commemorate and from what perspective? 35:02 If the city decides to act: sequence of events and questions 36:06 Overlapping narratives and ongoing discussions 37:17 Fine balance: not erecting permanent vs. ignoring issues 38:08 Why should we be surrounded by commercial stories? /// More about the "Nordic Insights" project here https://formareculturala.ro/nordic-in... The “Nordic Insights: addressing cancel culture in public spaces through artistic dialogue and cultural innovation” project is implemented by the Formare Culturala platform from Romania. It is funded by the Nordic Culture Fund through the Globus Opstart+ program.