Teju Cole, Recovering Meanings
to
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) Carrer de Montalegre 5, 08001 Barcelona

Image courtesy of the CCCB.
Writer, photographer and historian Teju Cole speaks about dehumanization in today’s world and, on this occasion of the publication of his latest book—Black Paper: Writing in Dark Times (in Spanish, Papel negro. Escribir en tiempos oscuros, Acantilado, 2025)—he turns to art and literature to explore possible paths of meaning and belonging.
Invoking such diverse figures as Edward Said, Caravaggio, Black Panther, Lorna Simpson and Susan Sontag, Teju Cole draws on art, documentary photography and literature as a way of criticizing, denouncing and examining questions like the vulnerability of the migratory experience, negritude and its many manifestations, and the colonial imaginaries that forged western discourse, and also the wounds they are still inflicting. Confronting the cruelty of the world, Teju Cole explores the language of art as an essential instrument for navigating the present and resisting dehumanization. In this session, he offers his deep, poetic, personal thoughts on the human condition, while calling for awareness and a return to meaning in the name of complex-free resistance.
Event will be held in Catalan and English with simultaneous translation from English to Catalan.
For more events check our online events calendar.