This contribution explores two projects that have addressed urban toponymy by building counter-narratives that challenge dominant historical narratives. It does so through audio-visual materials and draws on biographies as well as intimate gazes. The first section explores the Rome-based Tezeta collective’s Harnet Streets project, where memories and family histories of subjects belonging to the Eritrean diasporas1 become the centre of a new counter-storytelling that starts from the toponymy of the African neighbourhood. The second section focuses on the city of Padova, looking at how some colonial streets have been re-appropriated by the bodies, voices and gazes of six Italian Afro-descendants who took part in a participatory video, re-signifying urban traces of colonialism in a creative way. The teaching and research experience of the Visual Research Methods Lab (University of Padova, Fall 2020) allowed us to question worldviews and social hierarchies that made it possible to celebrate/forget the racist and sexist violence of colonialism.

中文翻译：

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寻找呼吸的空间

本文探讨了两个通过构建挑战主流历史叙事的反叙事来解决城市地名问题的项目。它通过视听材料和传记以及亲密的凝视来做到这一点。第一部分探讨了总部位于罗马的 Tezeta 集体的 Harnet Streets 项目，其中厄立特里亚侨民的记忆和家族历史成为从非洲社区的地名开始的新反故事的中心。第二部分关注帕多瓦市，看看一些殖民时期的街道如何被参与视频的六名意大利非裔后裔的身体、声音和目光重新占用，重新标记了殖民主义的城市痕迹一种创造性的方式。