At a Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) Book Talk moderated by Dr Neelima Jeychandran, an assistant professor in Art History at VCUarts Qatar, GU-Q doctoral fellow, Dale Luis Menezes shared how he made archives relevant to today in his groundbreaking co-edited volume 'Memories, Archived: Contemporary Views from South Asia'.
The book – co-edited with curator Leandre D’Souza, and Susana Bastos Mateus, University of Lisbon, who joined Menezes on the panel — explored a collection of Goan watercolours produced throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, curated for an exhibition at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts titled “ArQhive: Early-Modern-Contemporary Vision.”
Memories archived, brings to life the untold stories of local artists who depicted the colonial architecture and agricultural commodities of their lands for the Portuguese through reinterpretations by local artists today. “It was not about treating archives as static relics but about bringing them alive through collaboration with contemporary artists, allowing us to create new narratives that resonate with the present,” recalled Menezes.
The entire exhibit grew out of a lecture given by Menezes at Sunaparanta Goa in 2022, where he shared the illustrations, and suggested they were produced by local artists in Goa with their own agency and contributions to early modern knowledge networks. The talk inspired D’Souza to suggest an exhibit of the works side-by-side with artist interpretations. “He used the term ‘co-production’ which offered deeper insights into the kinds of relationships which may have been negotiated to make these documents,” she explained.
Commenting on the book, which is itself an archive of essays, pictures, margin notes and artists interviews, Dr Jeychandran praised it as “fantastically created.” She also highlighted the way Menezes’s opening essay shed light on visual materials in archives as an overlooked area of study “It was a breath of fresh air,” she said, adding: “for art historians, they are not arty enough, and for historians they are not historical enough ...I’m so glad you began with the art as a starting point.”

A panel discussion on the book.