The latest chapter of Eritrea-born artist Dawit L. Petros's long-term investigation of the impact of Italian colonialism and its subsequent imprint on the visual cultures, populations and built environments of Africa, Europe and North America.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition curated by Karen Irvine at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP), Dawit L. Petros: Prospetto a Mare delves into Petros's ongoing examination of the intricate connections between Italy, East Africa, Libya, and North America, particularly focusing on Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. This solo exhibition, alongside its accompanying publication, illuminates the ways in which colonialism and cultural memory are etched into the visual fabric and architectural landscape of Chicago. Petros's inquiry aligns seamlessly with the mission of the museum, contributing to contemporary dialogues on visual art and its impact on our collective understanding of history, society, and identity.
Through various artistic strategies, Petros probes the propaganda used to promote the Italian colonial project in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, and Somalia and by extension, the newly formed Italian state; the technologies used to dominate occupied countries and simultaneously extoll the power of the occupiers; and the imperfect ways in which these histories are inscribed in public and private memory through monuments, storytelling, archives, and photography. Petros's works are largely concerned with global migration patterns—from the Italians who occupied the Horn of Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to Africans who fled North and East Africa due to colonialization and subsequent instability, to Africans who move to North America and Europe via Italy today.
Within the pages of this publication, esteemed scholars—Lindsay Caplan, Teresa Fiore, Ruth Iyob, Cristina Lombardi-Diop, and Onur Öztürk—engage in thought-provoking explorations of Petros's work. They probe themes of colonialism, modernism, technology, migration, and cultural memory, offering invaluable perspectives that enrich our understanding of Prospetto a Mare and its significance.
The practice of Dawit L. Petros (born 1972 in Asmara, Eritrea, lives and works in Montreal and Chicago) is largely informed by studies of global modernisms, theories of diaspora, and postcolonial theory. He has focused on a critical re-reading of the entanglements between colonialism and modernity. These concerns derive from lived experiences—Petros is an Eritrean immigrant who spent formative years in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya before settling in Canada. The overlapping cultures, perspectives, and tenets of this constellation produced a dispersed consciousness which is transnational in stance and outlook. Petros' works aim for an introspective analysis of the historical factors that produced these migratory conditions, as well as articulating the fluidity of contemporary transnational experiences and attendant issues of displacement, place-making, and cultural negotiation. Petros instals photographs, moving images, sculptural objects, and sound work according to performative, painterly, or site-responsive logics. Moving between the works echoes the extensive travel taken to produce them; while recurrent visual or formal devices quietly indicate the complex backdrops against which his projects are set.
Edited by Karen Irvine and Dawit L. Petros.
Texts by Lindsay Caplan, Teresa Fiore, Karen Irvine, Ruth Iyob, Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Onur Öztürk, Dawit L. Petros.
