Events

Artist talk in the frame of the exhibition SUGAR. Industrial Heritage and Colonialism with Fokus Grupa and Ferenc Gróf. Special guest: Dale W. Tomich

On this evening, the exhibition contributions by Ferenc Gróf, based in Paris, as well as the works from the artists collective Fokus Grupa, based in Ljubljana, will be presented and discussed.

Ferenc Gróf's works highlight the intertwining of the history of sugar with the colonial past. One of his two works is based on reproduced pages from the so-called Code Noir [Black Code], a decree issued by France’s King Louis XIV in 1685, which regulated the treatment of black slaves. It remained in force until the abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1848. Work on the sugar plantations was the most important area of work for the slaves.

Ferenc Gróf superimposes three sheets by Honoré Daumier, who became famous for his caricatures, on the Code Noir. They deal with the struggle between sugar cane and sugar beet and were published in 1839 in the satirical magazine Le Charivari.

The works of Fokus Grupa also have a historical reference point. The starting point of the two contributions to the exhibition is the oldest sugar refinery on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, founded in Fiume, today’s Rijeka, in 1750.

Fokus Grupa processes, among other things, the so-calledVedute ideate, which contain a rare depiction of racialized slave labor in Austria-Hungary. They refer to the invisible labor which enabled the industrial production of sugar and made visible the relation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, together with the peripheral port town of Rijeka, to the global flow of capital and the history of colonialism.

Special guest Dale W. Tomich joins the conversation. He is the author and editor of several books that link of slavery and sugar production, such as: "Slavery in the Circuit of Sugar," or, most recently: "Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery.".

More about the exhibition here.