ABSTRACT
In this essay, Rosemarie Buikema, project initiator of MOED Museum of Equality and Difference, and Astrid Kerchman, former project coordinator of MOED.online, elaborate on MOED’s exhibition Decolonial Dialogues with the Golden Coach (2022). This exhibition took the form a virtual dialogue between the much-contested Golden Coach’s panel Tribute from the Colonies and the work of contemporary artists of color. Bringing contemporary artworks in conversation with the panel, the aim of the virtual exhibition was to initiate a decolonial dialogue on three different narratives articulated on the carriage: 1) the Dutch history of colonialism and the stereotype of the “noble savage”; 2) the present-day socio-political position of immigrants; and 3) the nexus between colonialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction. The exhibition asks what it means when national icons, such as the Golden Coach, continue to reproduce stereotypes and stigmatizations. The authors reflect upon the curatorial and methodological choices that were made in the online curation process and demonstrate what decolonizing cultural heritage could possibly entail.
