The second part of the exchange program between Namibia and Germany starts in Windhoek

The second part of the bilateral exchange program between Namibia and Germany starts with the stay of the artists Banu Çiçek Tülü and Miriam Chebaibai Koch in Windhoek.

Since 2020, Akademie Schloss Solitude in cooperation with the National Art Gallery of Namibia and Goethe-Institut Namibia has been organizing the exchange program between Germany and Namibia as part of the Namibia initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg. With the residency program, the three partners want to establish a long-term artistic and cultural exchange between Namibia and Germany. The first part of the program included the four-month stay of the Namibian fellows Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Hage Nasheotwalwa Mukwendje, Nesindano »Ques« Namises (2021) as well as  Chantal Magano Kambrude, Keith Vries and Isabel Tueumuna Katjavivi (2022) in Stuttgart. Now Akademie Schloss Solitude, National Art Gallery Namibia and Goethe-Institut Namibia welcome the Berlin-based artists Banu Çiçek Tülü and Miriam Chebaibai Koch to Windhoek.

In the framework of her fellowship in Namibia, artist, researcher, electronic music producer and DJ Banu Çiçek Tülü, whose ideas and research are based primarily in sound and sonic methodologies, will analyze colonialism within sound archives and their spatial presentation.

»In Namibia, I recall many feelings and memories from South-East Turkey where I am originally from. The culture and everyday life resonate with me very much even though the soundscape is totally different. I can feel the same vibrations while working with great musicians who have an understanding of sound at a meta-level, as they were using language and voice for healing processes in different tribes.«
(Banu Çiçek Tülü)

Miriam Chebaibai Koch, politically active artist and psychosocial counselor whose work centers on an examination of the decolonization and portrayal of Black realities and German dissonance, will develop a multimedia installation that inquires about factors that contribute to an Afrofuturist vision of reparation. Both artists will stay in Namibia until the end of March 2023.

»As a German-Kenyan, Namibia feels familiar in many (sometimes distorted) ways. I am grateful to feel such a strong pan-African connection and to learn about the history, structures, struggles of this melting pot of a country, as well as meeting up with incredible artists and activists«
(Miriam Chebaibai Koch)

The residency exchange program is embedded in a two-part workshop series curated by the Namibian historian and artist Memory Biwa, which will take place in July 2023 in Namibia and October 2023 in Germany. Following on from Memory Biwa’s work on the history of anti-colonial resistance and genocide in Namibia as well as transnational memorial and reparative processes, the workshops will deal, among other things, with the question of what relationship the work of artists can have to the process of restitution today.

SWR Film Documentation
A film documentary by the SWR about the experiences of the Namibian fellows at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2021 and 2022 can be viewed via the following link: »Kulturaustausch Deutschland – Namibia«.

Alongside interviews with the artists Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Hage Nasheotwalwa Mukwendje and Nesindano »Ques« Namises, the video showcases the work »WE ALL BLEED R.E.D. (Remembering Every Drop)« of multidisciplinary artist Chantal Magano Kambrude, which uses textiles and sound to retell the history of the Nama(qua)/Herero genocide in Namibia by the German Empire from  1904 to 1908. The documentation also showcases the performance piece »The Story of a Forgotten Genocide« by poet, writer and performer Keith Vries, which utilizes poetry as its primary vehicle to inform audiences of Namibian and German descent about the genocide in Namibia. Written over a ten-year period, his poetry is based on historical texts and books written about the genocide, seeking to turn academic text into a accessible experience that demystifies the events of that decade.

The project is financed by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg in the framework of the Namibia initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

In cooperation with the National Art Gallery of Namibia and the Goethe-Institut Namibia.