Learning from
the stratigraphy
︎︎︎walk&talk lecture / 6–10.05.2024, Borgo
photos by Fabian Konopka
For the Annual Gathering at the Entity of Decolonisation, I curated, with the support of Steffie de Gaetano and Alice Pontiggia, a walk-and-talk session exploring the entangled histories and material evidence of Borgo Rizza.
The session began by examining the Western art value system’s reliance on concepts such as authenticity, provenance, and artist intentionality in preservation practices and its contradictions.
The session demonstrated how frameworks of the Western value system are upheld through socio-political and technical infrastructures that often prioritize the maintenance of dominant cultural paradigms over the material realities of heritage.
Through an analysis of the village’s material layers—a 4mm layer of Pompeian red paint, 2cm of concrete plaster, and 56cm of volcanic stone—the session uncovered the contradictions embedded in preservation practices.
It highlighted the overlooked labor and ecological implications of materials, critiquing the modern detachment between matter and symbolic value. Furthermore, it demonstrated how the persistent focus on superficial elements, such as plaster, has obscured deeper colonial entanglements and production histories, perpetuating extractive preservation logics.
Drawing on feminist neo-materialist perspectives, the session proposes shifting from preservation as accumulation toward practices of care that recognize the agency of materials and local knowledge. This approach envisions preservation as a collective, interconnected process that addresses the socio-political and ecological wounds tied to material and cultural heritage.
