"of interest to the general public"
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| 8 EUR, reduced 4 EUR |
| Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the Foyer. |
| English with translation into German |
| Duration: 120 min |
| English, German |
| Mechanical Arena in the Foyer |
| Part of: Objects talk back |
Inspired by the history of the 1868 Napier expedition and the burning of the palace fortress at Magdala, “of interest to the general public” is a multi-media narration created by Maaza Mengiste for Objects Talk Back. She uses photography, words and sound to re-imagine the journey of the stunning and elaborately made royal mantle from Ethiopia – out of battle, through fire, over mountains to cross the waters into Berlin, Germany.
The ouevre of Maaza Mengiste, Ethiopian writer and photographer, who currently lives in New York, is composed from voices and stories that have been excluded, from gaps that seem inexplicable, from images, objects and places that pulse with pasts unresolved. She came to Berlin to explore the African collections on display at the Ethnological Museum and ended up in the depot. Through her extraordinary new piece for Humboldt Forum she opens up a dynamic space of encounters, rich, glimmering and haunting as the gold silver threads of the mantle.
After her presentation, Maaza Megiste will be in conversation with Priya Basil.
Parts of the Ethiopian collection are on display in the Schaumagazin on the 2nd floor, room 214. The exhibitions can be viewed free of charge until 18:30.
Maaza Mengiste will be happy to sign her books after the event. Her latest work “The Shadow King” will be on sale at the event.
Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. She is the author of the novel, The Shadow King, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, and was a 2020 LA Times Book Prize Fiction finalist. It was named best book of the year by the New York Times, NPR, Elle, Time, and more. Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was selected by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books and named one of the best books of 2010 by Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, and other publications. Her story, “Dust, Ash, Flight,” which appeared in Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza, was awarded a 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.
She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, a DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellowship, a Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, the Premio von Rezzori, the Premio il ponte, a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and a Creative Capital Award. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Granta, the Guardian, The New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and BBC, among other places.
She has taught at New York University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, and Queens College/CUNY, and Professor of English at Wesleyan University. She is at work on her third novel.
Priya Basil
Priya Basil is an author, and curator of the Humboldt Forum project Objects Talk Back. In her book Be My Guest/Gastfreundschaft (2019), she combines memoir, philosophy, food and politics in a reflection on hospitality in the broadest sense. Her most recent book Im Wir und Jetzt: Feministin Werden (2021) combines politics with the personal, as does her film essay on memory-culture and belonging, Locked In and Out (2020), which can be seen online.
She is co-founder and board member of WIR MACHEN DAS, an NGO that works with refugees and migrants for a more inclusive society. Priya is also a member of the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She has conceptualized and curated projects for various institutions including the Goethe Institut and International Literature Festival Berlin. From 2021 to 2023 Priya was International Writer in Residence for Mindscapes, a project of the Wellcome Trust UK, devoted to transforming how we understand, talk about and treat mental health. As part of this Priya undertook a research journey which spanned six continents to learn about different understandings of well being and practices of healing. In 2024, Priya is Writer in Residence with Wellcome’s new Climate and Health project. She is working on a new book which draws on her research and travels.