Venue:IDEAL artspace
Schulze-Delitzsch-Straße 27
04315 Leipzig
idealartspace.dePartner:Die Recherchen wurde gefördert vom Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR und von der Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen.
- Leipzig October 26 // 8pm* musical activation by Gundolf Nandico and Luka Mukavhele
- Windhoek November 17 // 7pm** performative activation by Tuli Mekondjo (live from Windhoek via stream at Kunstraum IDEAL).
* UTC, Namibia and Germany are in the same time zone.
** UTC + 1, due to winter time in Germany. 6 pm in Namibia
On 29.10.1923, the first regular radio station in Germany went on the air. Prior to this, radio technology was tested and used during the war, and the first news broadcasts went to the front until civilian use was finally introduced. This 100th anniversary, in addition to celebrating the freedom of radio, can serve as an occasion for a look at its violent history and a critical interrogation of media use.
Frederike Moormann, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja and Angelika Waniek have embarked on an in-depth research on the connection between electric telegraphy and German colonial history. The project Interpretation of a map // Verklanglichung einer Karte is part of this artistic research and focuses on the role of telegraphy in the genocide of the Herero and Nama.
At the beginning of the 20th century, electric telegraphy is a new technology through which messages can be transmitted wirelessly and in real time across the globe for the first time. Telegraphy was also possible because of the copper deposit in Namibia, which was violently mined during the colonial period. There was anti-colonial resistance by the indigenous population against the double land grab, whose suppression led to the German-Namibian War.
The work Interpretation of a map // Verklanglichung einer Karte deals with a historical map from 1904, which depicts the telegraphic connections of the German troops during the genocide of the Herero and Nama. The poster work is part of a collaborative engagement with this colonial, violent archival document. Various artists*, performers* and musicians* were invited to respond to this map with their specific artistic practices in order to unravel it, expose it and appropriate it. What remains of a colonial archive when aesthetic practices re-read colonial power relations?
On view is a work photographed for the billboard by Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo. She takes the war map as an object, transfers it to canvas and overwrites it by embroidering it with red threads.
The artistic translation of the historical map is extended by a recording of the two musicians Robert Machiri (Zimbabwe) and Gundolf Nandico (Germany), who interpret the map together as a score: A Counter-Narrative to the Military Map, which was previously drawn large on the floor with chalk so that the musicians* can move playfully over it. At the opening on October 26, the two horn players Gundolf Nandico and Luka Mukhavele will interpret the map musically.
The work will be shown simultaneously at Project Space in Windhoek, Namibia. In spring 2024, it will be performed in an extended form as a performative audio walk at Theater RAMPE in Stuttgart.
Artistic team
Since 2022 Frederike Moormann, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Angelika Waniek are an artistic research team from Namibia and Germany, which engage in site-specific research and performative work on topics of transnational music making, memory culture, commemoration and reparation processes. Frederike Moormann is a sound artist, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja an artistic researcher and Angelika Waniek a performer. In their artistic process they collaborate with other artistic positions: Listening at Pungwe (Memory Biwa & Robert Machiri), Friedrich Lober, Gundolf Nandico, Tuli Mekondjo, Luka Mukhavele, West Uarije, Keith Vries.
