Patrick Ziza's d6 Residency Exploring colonial narratives
We are delighted to warmly welcome Patrick Ziza back to D6’s studio and to share that they join us as D6 Associate Artist.
Our associate artists group is formed of artists who have recently worked with us, who we invite in the role to help shape and guide our programme.
Ziza’s journey with D6 started with the Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues open call in 2024. The programme is an ambitious conversation between artists and the museums, archives and communities that shape and hold our European colonial histories.
This year Contested Desires has taken Ziza to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile and Italy’s Museo Egizio in Turin, responding to the complex and often devastating ways power and colonisation have affected people and places across the globe.
In between these research residencies, Ziza has spent time at the D6 studio - meeting with artists and partners to share ideas and thinking, and contributing to our programme, including presenting Threads of Memory at the Late Shows.
The residency in Newcastle is a chance for Ziza to share their experience and learning so far, bringing it home to the North East and continuing to develop their research through local connections.
Narratives of colonial power
Ziza says: I’ve been grappling with decolonial language and trying to understand the foundational (often Western) narratives that were used to justify the conquest of African peoples. This history is vast and layered, and it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole in uncovering its complexities. My aim is to zoom in to how certain dominant worldviews were constructed and reinforced in ways that legitimised slavery, colonisation and occupation.
'I’m also interested in how these narratives were used to classify and divide people. For example, how colonisers claimed to “civilise” so-called “primitive” communities, and how these ideas later solidified into racial categories that divided communities who shared the same cultural heritage and, in some cases, led to genocides. These histories are rarely taught to us, yet they continue to shape the world we live in.
'As I begin to confront these colonial legacies, and as part of my own creative practice, I’m piecing together a series of events, beliefs and pseudo-scientific theories that were once treated as credible knowledge. Understanding these narratives is the first step toward challenging them artistically.
‘I’m thinking about ways to have conversations with people here about the consequences of empire. The story keeps going deeper and is very personal, but also resonates with a common experience. I have questions like is there a common language to talk about this? How do we bring in multiple voices?
‘We need to unpack colonial legacy before we even get onto decolonial practice.’
Tracepace
Ziza’s first residency was in Santiago at the Museum of Memory and Human, which is dedicated to remembering those who were imprisoned and disappeared during the military coup led by General Pinochet (1973-1990), along with archiving the repression that took place in the following years, the resistance movement, exile and international solidarity.
During their residency, Ziza developed Tracepace, an evolving artwork that began as a performative installation inviting the public into a collective act of remembrance. On cloth laid out in the museum’s courtyard, people dipped their feet in hibiscus dyed water to create channels of deep pink footprints encircling a seahorse. An emblem of hope for prisoners, as water swirled down the seahorse shaped drains on the rare occasion they could remove their blindfolds when showering.
The canvas, carrying the emotional and political weight of collective memory, was then displayed at the Great North Museum: Hancock as part of the Contested Desires exhibition this summer.
Breathing Stela
While in residency at the Museo Egizio in Turin, Ziza was struck by the monumental presence of ancient Egyptian artefacts, revealing Europe’s enduring imperial fixation with Egypt.
Ziza spent time with the exhibits and the archives at the museum, developing research to create a durational performance in the gallery space. For the performance, entitled Breathing Stela, Ziza approached archival material and records as if they were living sources, unsettling fixed notions of power, beauty, spirituality and inheritance.
The embodied figure became an unexpected interlocutor mediating between the vitrined relics and the visitors who view them.
Associate Artist
Associate Artists are part of D6’s extended family - acting as critical friends.
D6’s Lead Producer Andrea Carter says: ‘We are hugely privileged to have Ziza as an Associate Artist - we look forward to working together to look both deeply and tangentially at the intersection of D6’s programme themes and ethics of engagement through the lens of Ziza’s experience and practice.’
Contested Desires Partners
D6 leads on Contested Desires in the UK, with partners and communities across Tyne and Wear. Special thanks to the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle University, Sangini, North East of England African and Caribbean Community Association, Northumbria University, South Tyneside Cultural Partnership and Tyne Coast College.
CONTESTED DESIRES is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In the UK we are grateful for support from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund.
The partnership includes ECCOM (IT), D6:EU (CY), Xarkis (CY), BJCEM (BE), La Bonne (ES), La Fabrique (TN), H410 (NL), Creative Court (NL), Pro Progressione (HU), Museum of Civilizations (IT), Museo Egizio (IT), National Museum of Natural History and Science (PT), Cyprus University of Technology (CY), D6: Culture in Transit (UK), Larnaca European Capital of Culture 2030 (CY), the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester (UK), the Nubuke Foundation (GH) and Museum of Memory and Human Rights (CL).
Further reading
Ziza’s digital reflection (Tracepace and Threads of Memory)
https://contesteddesires.eu/pdf/CDCD%20Dgtal%20Rflction%20.pdf
Ziza in conversation with Kate Sweeney for Corridor8: https://corridor8.co.uk/article/a-pink-seahorse
Images: Patrick Ziza, Breathing Stela, 2025; Patrick Ziza, tracepace, 2025. Photo: Rayen Luna Solar
Our associate artists group is formed of artists who have recently worked with us, who we invite in the role to help shape and guide our programme.
Ziza’s journey with D6 started with the Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues open call in 2024. The programme is an ambitious conversation between artists and the museums, archives and communities that shape and hold our European colonial histories.
This year Contested Desires has taken Ziza to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile and Italy’s Museo Egizio in Turin, responding to the complex and often devastating ways power and colonisation have affected people and places across the globe.
In between these research residencies, Ziza has spent time at the D6 studio - meeting with artists and partners to share ideas and thinking, and contributing to our programme, including presenting Threads of Memory at the Late Shows.
The residency in Newcastle is a chance for Ziza to share their experience and learning so far, bringing it home to the North East and continuing to develop their research through local connections.
Narratives of colonial power
Ziza says: I’ve been grappling with decolonial language and trying to understand the foundational (often Western) narratives that were used to justify the conquest of African peoples. This history is vast and layered, and it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole in uncovering its complexities. My aim is to zoom in to how certain dominant worldviews were constructed and reinforced in ways that legitimised slavery, colonisation and occupation.
'I’m also interested in how these narratives were used to classify and divide people. For example, how colonisers claimed to “civilise” so-called “primitive” communities, and how these ideas later solidified into racial categories that divided communities who shared the same cultural heritage and, in some cases, led to genocides. These histories are rarely taught to us, yet they continue to shape the world we live in.
'As I begin to confront these colonial legacies, and as part of my own creative practice, I’m piecing together a series of events, beliefs and pseudo-scientific theories that were once treated as credible knowledge. Understanding these narratives is the first step toward challenging them artistically.
‘I’m thinking about ways to have conversations with people here about the consequences of empire. The story keeps going deeper and is very personal, but also resonates with a common experience. I have questions like is there a common language to talk about this? How do we bring in multiple voices?
‘We need to unpack colonial legacy before we even get onto decolonial practice.’
Tracepace
Ziza’s first residency was in Santiago at the Museum of Memory and Human, which is dedicated to remembering those who were imprisoned and disappeared during the military coup led by General Pinochet (1973-1990), along with archiving the repression that took place in the following years, the resistance movement, exile and international solidarity.
During their residency, Ziza developed Tracepace, an evolving artwork that began as a performative installation inviting the public into a collective act of remembrance. On cloth laid out in the museum’s courtyard, people dipped their feet in hibiscus dyed water to create channels of deep pink footprints encircling a seahorse. An emblem of hope for prisoners, as water swirled down the seahorse shaped drains on the rare occasion they could remove their blindfolds when showering.
The canvas, carrying the emotional and political weight of collective memory, was then displayed at the Great North Museum: Hancock as part of the Contested Desires exhibition this summer.
Breathing Stela
While in residency at the Museo Egizio in Turin, Ziza was struck by the monumental presence of ancient Egyptian artefacts, revealing Europe’s enduring imperial fixation with Egypt.
Ziza spent time with the exhibits and the archives at the museum, developing research to create a durational performance in the gallery space. For the performance, entitled Breathing Stela, Ziza approached archival material and records as if they were living sources, unsettling fixed notions of power, beauty, spirituality and inheritance.
The embodied figure became an unexpected interlocutor mediating between the vitrined relics and the visitors who view them.
Associate Artist
Associate Artists are part of D6’s extended family - acting as critical friends.
D6’s Lead Producer Andrea Carter says: ‘We are hugely privileged to have Ziza as an Associate Artist - we look forward to working together to look both deeply and tangentially at the intersection of D6’s programme themes and ethics of engagement through the lens of Ziza’s experience and practice.’
Contested Desires Partners
D6 leads on Contested Desires in the UK, with partners and communities across Tyne and Wear. Special thanks to the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle University, Sangini, North East of England African and Caribbean Community Association, Northumbria University, South Tyneside Cultural Partnership and Tyne Coast College.
CONTESTED DESIRES is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In the UK we are grateful for support from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund.
The partnership includes ECCOM (IT), D6:EU (CY), Xarkis (CY), BJCEM (BE), La Bonne (ES), La Fabrique (TN), H410 (NL), Creative Court (NL), Pro Progressione (HU), Museum of Civilizations (IT), Museo Egizio (IT), National Museum of Natural History and Science (PT), Cyprus University of Technology (CY), D6: Culture in Transit (UK), Larnaca European Capital of Culture 2030 (CY), the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester (UK), the Nubuke Foundation (GH) and Museum of Memory and Human Rights (CL).
Further reading
Ziza’s digital reflection (Tracepace and Threads of Memory)
https://contesteddesires.eu/pdf/CDCD%20Dgtal%20Rflction%20.pdf
Ziza in conversation with Kate Sweeney for Corridor8: https://corridor8.co.uk/article/a-pink-seahorse
Images: Patrick Ziza, Breathing Stela, 2025; Patrick Ziza, tracepace, 2025. Photo: Rayen Luna Solar
