{"id":13933,"date":"2025-04-01T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in2past.org\/?p=13933"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:24:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:24:40","slug":"this-is-not-a-conversation-about-statues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in2past.org\/pt\/news\/this-is-not-a-conversation-about-statues\/","title":{"rendered":"Esta n\u00e3o \u00e9 uma conversa sobre est\u00e1tuas"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Friday March 28th, at Tigre de Papel, in Lisbon<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

This is not a conversation about statues<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Rahul Rao, Sanjay Seth and Afonso Dias Ramos discuss Rao\u2019s latest book<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

1\/4\/2025<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This was not a conversation about statues, but rather about what they represent. \u2018I did not think the world needed yet another book about statues\u2019, admitted author Rahul Rao<\/a>, adding his interest lies in \u2018the way statues are being used as a portal, a doorway into deeper conversations about race, and caste and decolonisation\u2019.<\/p>

Rahul was at the Tigre de Papel bookstore<\/a>, in Lisbon, late last Friday afternoon, together with historian Sanjay Seth<\/a> and IHA \u2013 NOVA FCSH \/ IN2PAST researcher Afonso Dias Ramos<\/a>, to discuss his newly published The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire<\/em>, in a presentation event organised by IN2PAST.<\/p>

\u2018Ultimately, as we know, the contestation about statues is not about statues, as material embodied things in the world, but rather about what they represent, or what they serve as a flashpoint for,\u2019 argued art historian Afonso. In this \u2018very elegantly written\u2019 book, as both Sanjay and Afonso put it, Rahul explores various controversies about statues around the world and the way protesters use them \u2018as a rhetorical device, a means of having these conversations about structural racism that nobody really wants to have\u2019.<\/p>

For Sanjay Seth, this is much more than \u2018an extremely topical book\u2019 since \u2018amidst the plethora of disorientating statue topplings, Rahul makes some important distinctions\u2019. Rather than affirmations of regime change, many of the statue controversies analysed are protests against the failure of regime change.<\/p>

In a discussion covering issues such as decolonisation, racism, iconoclasms, public space, statue erection and toppling, or even competitive statue building, Rahul also explained why \u2018his\u2019 statues have psychic lives. If you could not join us last Friday, listen to the event podcast by Tigre de Papel here<\/a> or below.<\/p>