Prélude: Ré-imaginer le passé – Talking Objects Film Night
@KINDL – Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst
Am Sudhaus 3, Berlin
6. März 2024
19:00  — 21:00

Die in Dakar entwickelte Ausstellung Ré-imaginer le passé schlägt eine Neubetrachtung der Vergangenheit vor und schafft Zugänge zu anderen Formen des Wissens. Die Künstler*innen untersuchen, wie eine Zukunft aus dekolonialer Perspektive vorstellbar ist. Die Ausstellung ist vom 24. März bis 28. Juli 2024 im KINDL – Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst zu sehen. 

Als Prélude zur Ausstellung lädt das TALKING OBJECT LAB zu einem Filmabend ein, der sich verlorengegangenem Wissen und geteilter Erinnerung zuwendet und einen Afrofuturistischen Blick in Zukunft wirft.

Einführung: Isabel Raabe (Kuratorin, TALKING OBJECTS) & Celina Basra (Autorin, Kuratorin, Teil des TALKING OBJECTS Teams)

Kwaku Ananse
Kwaku Ananse (2013. 26 min. Ghana/Mexico/USA. Dir. Akosua Adoma Owusu) is a West African fable about a male spider who spends years collecting all the world's wisdom in a wooden container. When he tries to hide the container up a tree, he can't find a way to transport it high enough into the branches. His little son, Ntikuma, shows him what to do which infuriates him so much, Kwaku Ananse throws the container down onto the ground. It breaks, and the collected wisdom seeps away. Everyone rushes over, hoping to salvage what they can… Nyan Koronhwea returns to her father Kwaku Ananse's native Ghana for his funeral. They lost contact long ago. Overwhelmed by the funeral, she retreats into the spirit world in search of Kwaku Ananse. Carrying her ambivalent emotions with her into the forest, she learns an ultimate truth about human relationships.

PUMZI
PUMZI (2009. 21 min. Kenya/South Africa. Dir. Wanuri Kahiu) is a  20-minute Sci-fi film about futuristic Africa, 35 years after World War III ‘The Water War’. Nature is extinct. The outside is dead. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council. When she receives a box in the mail containing soil, she plants an old seed in it and the seed starts to germinate instantly. Asha appeals to the Council to grant her permission to investigate the possibility of life on the outside, but the Council denies her exit visa. Asha breaks out of the inside community to go into the dead and derelict outside to plant the growing seedlings and possibly find life outside.
 

Deep Down Tidal
Deep Down Tidal (2017. 19 min. South Africa. Dir. Tabita Rezaire) explores the ocean as the setting for colonialist and neo-colonialist power structures. The film delves into the concept of electronic colonialism, a theory that presents Western dominance in digital technologies as a strategic pursuit by post-industrial nations to assert their global influence. Through a montage of celestial forms, human figures, and distorted telecommunications, Tabita Rezaire's visual narrative illustrates how, in the contemporary era, the battleground for colonizers has shifted from physical landscapes to the digital realm.

… these practices are done in sharing her stories
… these practices are done in sharing her stories (2020. 4,24 min. Zambia. Dir. Gladys Kalichini) is a product of the artist's extended stay in South Africa and focuses on how women tell stories about women as well as the rituals of cleansing and caring. The viewers get to explore the power of sharing memories as a way of subverting erasure, forgetfulness, and amnesia. The hymn that plays in the background is by Catholic women in Zambia and is titled 'ulemu kumwamba' which can loosely be translated to English as 'to pay respect to the heavens'.