FAREWELL (Germany/Nigeria)
2-channel video installation
THE BIGGEST PEOPLE WITH THE BIGGEST IDEAS CAN BE SHOT DOWN BY THE SMALLEST PEOPLE WITH THE SMALLEST MINDS
Inspired by the mythological figure of Mami Wata, a mermaid and water goddess admired and dreaded alongside the West African coast, the first part of the video installation reflects the famous first contact between Africa and Europe.
Mostly portrayed with white skin and long, straight hair, Mami Wata can be seen as representation of the white woman and thereby marks an African perspective on Europe as the Other.
What happens when we are beheld? The entities of the Self and the Other begin to sway, when discovery and understanding as the occidental paradigms of enlightenment are opposed by the perspective of being discovered and understood. The second part is set in the present time: the old gods and masters have retired, the new rulers equal them in atrocities though.
In between children's games and drill a scenery opens up, shivering between affirmation and over-affirmation, between imitation and mockery in the tradition of African-European encounter.
Produced in collaboration with the children theatre company 'The Footprints' (Lagos/Nigeria) the video installation FAREWELL unfolds an acting and re-enacting of colonial history and enables various perspectives of re-questioning inherited imaginaries in a comic-esque and childlike way.
Concept / direction: Sahar Rahimi
Photography / artistic collaboration: Florian Krauss
Editing / sound design: Aletta von Viettinghoff
Funded by TURN Fund of the Federal Cultural Foundation, Goethe-Institut Nigeria and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA)
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