Silvia Rosi

In Protektorat, Italian artist Silvia Rosi examines her Togolese roots and highlights systems of communication and signs in colonial and hegemonial structures of power. Beginning with archival material from the National Archives of Togo, she calls attention to the extensive spread of Western systems during the colonial occupation of Togo by the German Reich, and by British and French forces. The act of storytelling in Protektorat occurs through multiple visual forms and sensory levels: static and moving images with sound enable viewers to see and hear how local languages, traditions, and visual culture were overwritten and repressed under colonialism. Rosi is always the protagonist of these works, in which she brings together personal and collective experiences.