Albertinum: Sequence 2: The Year 1983

Please note that the exhibition has not been opened. We will soon be organising on-site discourse formats on the topic of Namibia.

Sequences: Entangled Internationalisms

“Sequences: Entangled Internationalisms” is a series of three exhibitions by the Research Department of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) at Albertinum from February until December 2024. Each sequence is based on a specific historical case study that explores how notions of internationalism with India, Namibia, or Ghana are interwoven with those that emanted from, traversed, or manifested themselves in the German Democratic Republic. The curators of the “sequences” are researchers and academics working in Asia or the African continent. On one hand, the exhibition presents the traces of exchanges with the GDR in these different locations. On the other hand, the curatorial research also includes objects from the art collections in Dresden in dialogue with SKD researchers. “Sequences” adopts a transhistorical method: the presentation of historical objects and works reconstruct their historical contexts, which are scarcely present in current collective memory—here or elsewhere. At the same time, these objects are also material sources of knowledge that span generations and help to develop contemporary forms for historical narratives in the present. In collaboration with Spector Books, each “sequence” will publish a printed and digital research edition.

Till the Sun Rises. Sequence

The Year 1983

Sequence 2: Entangled Internationalism

In 1983, the hundredth anniversary of Karl Marx's death and the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's birth coincided - a high point for the political and humanistic self-image of the GDR.

Exhibition Site Albertinum Forschung

DATES 19/06/2024—25/08/2024

In the spirit of socialist solidarity, this was closely related to the liberation movement of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) in present-day Namibia. Curator Zoé Samudzi uses contemporary artworks to reflect on the geopolitical entanglements associated with fetishisation and violence, drawing a link to German colonialism and current debates on restitution. In a new work, the Angolan-born Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo explores motherhood, indigenous heritage and militarisation.

**Tuli Mekondjo, Work in progress an DDR-Uniform**

The Berlin research collective Forensis presents new research findings in the form of an architectural reconstruction of German colonialism on Shark Island in Namibia. The exhibition is Sequence 2 of the series " Entangled Internationalisms" organised by the research department at the Albertinum. It is being realised in dialogue with the Staatlich Ethnografische Sammlungen, the Kunstbibliothek and the Albertinum. "Sequences" is the curatorial and artistic research part of the international project "Decolonising Socialism. Entangled Internationalism" (2019-2023) at the HEAD Genève of the HES-SO, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, in partnership with the research department of the SKD.

The production and the accompanying program were funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the project "Museums as active places of democracy" (MODemo).