Between April and August 2021

BISMARCK-DECOLONIAL is an activist-performative utopia with artists from Yaoundé, Lomé, Windhoek, Kigali, Dar es Salaam and Hamburg

The Bismarck statue in Hamburg will be restored in 2020-2022 for around nine million euros and once again confronts us with the question of how we as a society deal with German colonial history. Otto von Bismarck, as one of the key figures in the colonization of Africa, still stands uncommented as a colossus in the middle of Hamburg. What is needed here is a collective and decolonizing dissenting voice that initiates a critical discussion.

Therefore, the focus of BISMARCK DEKOLONIAL is the artistic narratives of the people from the former colonies (Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo and Rwanda). This enables a necessary change of perspective, because this is the only way to continue the decolonizing process of reappraisal. The central questions are: What do you have to say when you come from the former German colonies and see this huge monument? What art action can decolonize Bismarck?

The project is structured in two parts. In April 2021, preliminary work for joint artistic contributions will be developed in the form of a LAB / FORUM, which will then be presented live in front of the Bismarck Memorial in July 2021. A common dialogue in an OPEN / FORUM outside of Hamburg is made possible via a live stream.

We can't change history, but we can develop more diverse perspectives on how we look at history.

[Curator] Yolanda Gutiérrez
[Assistance Management] Lucia Lilen Heffner
[Dramaturgical collaboration] Anna Sophie Felser
[Costume] Yupanqui Ramos
[Moderation] Zainab X
[Graphik Design] Dr. Calavera
[Website] Uli Mathes
[MIT] Isack Peter Abeneko, Banza Dolph, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Sarah Lasaki, Stone, Moussa Issiaka,, Calavera among others.

Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg.