Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

Gladys Kalichini

Postdoctoral Fellow

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

September 2024 – August 2025

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»The Art of Seeing Women in Visual Portrayals of Liberation Movements in Africa«

Project outline:

This study in Art History critically explores the extent to which visual narratives about women’s participations in liberation movements in Africa can appear more visible or invisible within the broader context of national and political memory. The study extends a framework of invisibility that is explored in my doctoral dissertation, and that was developed by critically analysing processes in which narratives about women are either concealed or uncovered in visual portrayals relating to the independence of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The concept of invisibility in this study articulates a dynamic process in which narratives evolve over time, at times revealing or concealing given perspectives. My study at the Forschungskolleg extends the theoretical framework employed in the PhD study to critically explore artists engagement with the notion of independence and nation building in Africa. Further, the study analyses the ways histories associated with women’s participations in national liberation movements in Africa are visible or not in contemporary art, archival photographic collections and public independence monuments. (Gladys Kalichini)

Research partner:

Gladys Kalichini is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of research focus »Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World«

Scholarly profile of Gladys Kalichini

Gladys Kalichini is an art historian and contemporary visual artist from Lusaka, Zambia. She received her PhD in Art History and Visual Culture from Rhodes University in South Africa in 2023 and has worked as a guest lecturer at the University of Bergen and the University of Vienna, among others. Much of her work deals with the themes of history, memory and gender in the broader context of studies on the Global South. Her artistic work has been exhibited at the Zeitz MOCCA museum in South Africa, the Fiona and Sydney Myer Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, the Frauen Museum in Wiesbaden, the Bamako Biennale in Mali and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. In 2022, she also received the prestigious Henrike Grohs Art Award from the Goethe-Institut.

Website:
Please find more information about Gladys Kalichini here.

Contact:
Email: kalichini@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de

Main areas of research:

Notions of erasure, memory, representations and visibilities of women in colonial resistance histories.

Selected publications:

(ed. Leykam, Daniela; Tannert, Christoph; Kalichini, Gladys) These Gestures of Memory, Antique Collector’s Club (2020).
»FyaMoneka: Navigating the Erasure of Women in National Archives 2016: SArCHI Research Group, Decolonising the Arts – Perspectives From the African Continent, Grahamstown, South Africa«, in: Archives and Art; College for Creative Studies, Detroit, United States of America. Women On Aeroplanes. Inflight Magazine. (2020), p. 1-21.
Exhibitions
»A Gathering of Stories and Memories«, Frauen Museum, Wiesbaden. January – July 2024. More Information.

»This Memory will not fade«, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne. March – April 2024. More information.

»Seekers, Seers and Soothsayers«, Zeitz MOCCA, Cape Town, South Africa. October 2023 – September 2024. More information.

» … these gestures of memory«, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany. June 2019. More information.

»Chamoneka: UnCasting Shadows«, Albany History Museum, Makhanda, South Africa. 2017. More information.

Gladys Kalichini

Scholarly profile of Gladys Kalichini

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