Ephemeral Archipelago is based on Christian Vium’s two research stays in St. Croix (2018-19 and 2022), where he repatriated archives from Denmark to the US Virgin Islands, collaborating closely with local families in analyzing and reframing this material in dialogue with their own private archives. Archives, new photographs and film recordings are juxtaposed with local vernacular archives consisting of photographs, documents, diaries, letters etc. from private family collections and sound and videos unfold personal memories and narratives that challenge dominant versions of history. The exhibition provides empirical vantage points from which to re-conceptualize our understanding of the continuing influence of the (Danish) colonial era in the everyday lives of those residing in areas affected by centuries of enslavement and colonial subjugation.

‘Ephemeral Archipelago – Vernacular Histories from St. Croix' is part of the research-based project Reframing History, financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and Institute for Culture and Society at Aarhus University (2018-2022). The project is an artistic investigation of the continued effects of Danish colonial rule on social life in areas formerly colonized by Denmark. The departure point is a comparative critique of historical archives in close collaboration with people living in the former Danish colonies in St. Croix (the former Danish West Indies, now US Virgin Islands), Ikerasak (Greenland), and Tranquebar (India) as well as historians, archivists and other experts at universities, museums, research libraries, and archives. Vium’s project is unique in that it digitizes and preserves local vernacular archives, enabling future generations to reframe dominant historical narratives and access important new affective registers harnessed in these everyday documents that so often are omitted from official histories.