Research Projects

Colonial Photographs from Namibia at the MARKK (2017-2020)

Special exhibition Ovizire
© MARKK, Paul Schimweg

During a one-year art and research fellowship, the artists Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Nicola Brandt and Nashilongweshipwe Art and research fellowships joined the artists Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Nicola Brandt and Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja and the historian Ulrike Peters in Hamburg to reflect on the complexity of their shared, entangled German-Namibian history and colonial heritage. The starting point for their collaboration were photographic holdings of the MARKK produced in Namibia during the German colonial period. While the artists developed new works during a one-year residency, the historian Ulrike Peters explored the construction of colonial, white masculinity in the photographs of the collector and photographer Alexander von Hirschfeld during her three-year research fellowship. The preliminary results of the transdisciplinary exchange were presented in the exhibition “Ovizire • Somgu: From where do we speak?” consisting of performances, video installations, photo collages and historical photographs at MARKK (5.12.2018-14.4.2019) and at M.Bassy (6.12.2018 – 27.01.2019).

In cooperation with the University of Hamburg, Research Centre Hamburg’s (Post)Colonial Legacy, Prof. Jürgen Zimmerer.
Supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation






Participants: Ulrike Peters, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Nicola Brandt, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja

Duration: 2017 – 2020

Contact:
Catharina Winzer
Photo archive (management)
phone +49 40 42 88 79 – 680
mail catharina.winzer@markk-hamburg.de