SHIFTING THE CENTRE: GRENADA AS REFERENCE
Dates: 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Jun 2023
Location: Black Cultural Archive, 1 Windrush Square, London SW2 1EF
Curated by: Orsod Malik
Designs by: Yolande Mutale
Presented by: International Curators Forum (ICF)
Supported by: Black Cultural Archives, George Padmore Institute, Esme Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England
Grenada as Reference was the first iteration of ICF’s Shifting the Centre project. This exhibition displayed archival materials relating to the Grenadian Revolution (1979-1983) at Black Cultural Archives in Brixton between 16 March – 4 June 2023.
Grenada as Reference invited audiences to think about world history from the vantage point of a small island nation, which was home to the first revolutionary government in the English-speaking Caribbean between 1979-1983. In this relatively brief historical moment, the Grenadian people engaged in a collective process that reoriented their country’s resources, economy, and education away from neo-colonial interests and toward public good.
The archival collections on display acted as portals into this historical moment. A moment animated by the emergence of neoliberalism – an economic system designed to privatise the public sector and transfer the production of consumer goods to the poorest countries at the cheapest possible cost. It was also a moment marked by international political struggles, from waves of working-class protests in the UK to an anti-imperialist revolution in Nicaragua, and the making of a new revolutionary society in Mozambique. It is through the archival materials on display that we can witness how people have/can engage in politics and relate to the world.
This exhibition did not rely on a timeline or lay claim to a single sequence of events. Rather, the exhibit enacted a set of open-ended questions:
How can these archival materials be contextualised? What can be learned from them? What silences do they fill and where do silences remain? Are there teachings from this moment that can be applied to our present? And why isn’t Grenada referenced more widely?
Video shot and edited by Emmy Yoneda.
Inside the exhibition, we set up a recording booth for members of the public to record their responses to the exhibition. We invited visitors to respond with the following message:
Everyday people are the authors of history.
Contribute to the archive by sharing your thoughts on Grenada then and now, broader connections you’d like to make, or anything relating to the exhibition’s content.