Napoleon Maddox (US/FR)
Linnaeus Residency Programme, November 2025 - November 2026
The Cultural University at Linnaeus University welcomes artist Napoleon Maddox as Artist in Residence within the Linnaeus Residency Programme, in collaboration with the Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.
In the residency, Maddox will collaborate with researchers in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, engage students across disciplines, and work with cultural organisations and artists in Småland.
Grounded in historical research, oral histories, and social engagement, Maddox explores artistic methods as a way to investigate the human consequences of colonialism and imperial expansion. Through artistic research, creative dialogue, performances, workshops, and experimentation, the residency seeks to create shared spaces for critical reflection on history, power, and resistance, while opening new perspectives at the intersection of art, research, and education. At the same time, it explores how artistic practice can contribute to new forms of knowledge production through collaboration, inquiry, and exchange with both academic and local cultural actors.
Bio
Napoleon Maddox is a writer, musician, visual artist, and educator whose work bridges historical documentation and contemporary social engagement. His practice often combines archival research, oral histories, and community-based processes to illuminate marginalized narratives and reframe historical memory through sound, text, and visual art.
His early work A Riot Named Nina (2009), developed in the suburban areas of France, explored the repertoire of Nina Simone alongside the social conditions of the Parisian banlieues. In 2017, Maddox premiered the multimedia production Twice the First Time, which unfolded the life story of conjoined twins Millie-Christine McCoy, born into slavery in 1851, through document analysis and collected oral histories. A similar research-driven approach informed his recent production and painting series L’Ouverture de Toussaint (2021–2023), inspired by the life and legacy of Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution.
Läs mer