LUNÄ-talk
Take a seat at the LUNÄ table for a discussion about social, political, and ecological (in)dependence. Material aspects are also relevant: especially in relation to cotton, they form a constant theme throughout colonial history and the power structures that dominate today’s world.
LUNÄ is a copy of the original table of the Lunar Society, an 18th-century group of British industrialists, scientists, poets, and writers. They used to hold inspiring meetings – mostly during full moon – to explore the ways in which science, technology, and art could serve society.
Without its Eurocentric distortions, decolonization would be at the center of the narrative we tell about the twentieth century - and this retelling would allow us to see that global capitalism today is most fundamentally shaped by the struggle for independence.
– SVEN BECKERT in Empire of Cotton. A Global History
Invited contributors: Prof. Sven Beckert (author of ‘Empire of Cotton, A Global History’ / Harvard University, US ), Prof. Peter Pels (anthropologist, Leiden University, NL), Prof. Wayne Modest (Research Center for Material Culture in Leiden, NL), Christine Chivallon (anthropologist and directrice de recherche au CNRS/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Bordeaux, FR), Helen Elands (art historian, independent researcher, London, UK), Marjolijn Dijkman (initiator of LUNÄ Talks and co-host, BE), Maarten Vanden Eynde (artist and co-host, BE) and Alioum Moussa (artist and co-host, Yaounde, CM).
