Coveted Objects

Getting Rich in the Colonial Era

The 18th century colonial era was characterized by slavery and triangular trading between Europe, Africa and the Americas. It was marked by important international exchanges of goods, natural resources, labour and even cultural practices. Asian regions, India for example, became part of this circuit through the so-called "chartered" European imperial companies, which had a state monopoly on exploiting certain overseas markets and fuelled the slave trade.

The transfers of this expansionist period, for the most part asymmetric, had lasting consequences on the world, violently shaping the economies, societies and cultures of many regions. This long-term influence, which gathered pace in the 19th century, had the preliminary characteristics of the modern globalization in which we live today.

Fabio Rossinelli
Héritage d’un voyage
JP Kalonji
Mixed techniques. 2023. Loan from the artist
© JP Kalonji
This work is the heritage of a generation, of my Ancestors: an Italian woman, a Portuguese man, Angola, symbols and above all a hidden Relative who had suffered slavery. Parents, a journey and me, now, here, settled. I draw. And they're all there. Behind me, perhaps on the other side of the curtain, this invisible curtain. But I carry them inside me.

Jean-Philippe Kalonji

Born in Geneva to a family from Congo, Kalonji is a painter, illustrator and author who began his career internationally before returning to settle in Carouge. His humanitarian, societal fresques on such subjects as femicide, war crimes, migrants, slavery, the imbalance between North and South and terrorism, enable him to collaborate with Le Temps newspaper and work with Swiss institutions, NGOs and international organizations.
©Photo Igor Laski

Connecting with the Heritages of Slavery

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