(Not) so far and distant: Colonialism in Visual Family Memories in the Alps

The colonial enterprises of European states left behind many traces in their societies - not only in the public space, but also in the private frame of their family memories. Families represent a central mode of collective memory that has hardly been investigated in postcolonial memory research until now. While in recent decades public memory symbols such as street names and monuments as well as institutions such as museums and archives have been decolonized, perceptions about colonial realities, and about the idea of ,white’ supremacy circulated cheerfully and untouched within the family framework. In this context, it is precisely the photographs brought home or sent home by colonial actors decades ago, which - as seemingly authentic testimonies - reproduce and establish racist and colonialist images of a colonial history in the supposedly apolitical framework of the family to this very day. The aim of my ongoing book project is to no longer leave the visual colonial memories uncontradicted nor unchallenged in their families, but to subject them to a critical examination and thus, decolonize them.
The colonial project of fascist Italy against the Empire of Abyssinia (1935-1941) serves as a case study for this project, which focuses on the visual productions of German speaking soldiers and their families from the northernmost province of Italy, Bozen/Bolzano, in order to make the ambivalences of colonial wars visible. For the purpose of decolonizing the colonial pictures, which are still kept in 'South Tyrolean' attics today, they will be embedded in their historical contexts, i.e. their (re-)production, circulation, appropriation/rejection and tradition will be examined, and their essentialist visual meanings deconstructed. This book project is located at the intersection of postcolonial, memory and visual culture studies and uses a methodically combined approach.