Interwoven Memory(s)
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| free admission |
| no ticket required |
| English, German |
| Mechanical Arena in the Foyer |
Conversation with:
Tuli Mekondjo (artist, Namibia), Assumpta Mugiraneza (IRIBA Centre for Multimedia Heritage, Rwanda), Imani Tafari-Ama (author and curator, Jamaica), Roey Zeevi (educator, Israel), Alex Stolze (world e.V., Neustettlin), Andrea Scholz (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin), Patrick Helber (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin), Marc Wrasse (Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss), Christian Hajer (Guide / Urban Planner)
In the collaborative project “Interwoven Memory(s)”, employees of the Ethnologisches Museum, the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss and Berlin citizens together with international residents reflect on the possibilities and perspectives of educational formats that deal with the memory of the Shoah and the crimes of colonialism from multiple perspectives. The central question is: How can the recognition of difference be translated into a social remembrance that leaves room for Jewish and postcolonial voices of the present?
As part of the “Guest Room” series of events, those involved in the project will provide an insight into their work.
Participants
Assumpta Mugiraneza
Assumpta Mugiraneza is a French-Rwandan academic with degrees in education, social psychology and political science. Since 1994, her research has focused on genocides and extreme violence, in particular through intensive discourse analyses. Since 2010, she has been co-founder and director of the IRIBA Centre for Multimedia Heritage. This centre for audiovisual archives from Rwanda works at the interface between academic research and practice. It comprises materials from over a century and is freely accessible.
She is the author and co-author of a number of articles on hate speech, propaganda, the communication of history and the role of archives in state building and the deconstruction of hate ideologies.
Roey Zeevi
Roey Zeevi studied communication and cultural studies. He led educational groups at Yad Vashem for a decade before switching to organising nationwide tours with a team of educators six years ago.
His main focus is on teaching Holocaust remembrance, for which he cooperates with over 2000 Israeli teachers every year. With his innovative approaches to Holocaust education, he endeavours to ensure that the profound lessons of history find their way into educational institutions.
Imani Tafari-Ama
Imani Tafari-Ama spent the 2023-24 academic year as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. This was her second SIR award, having served in the Department of Anthropology at Bridgewater State University (BSU) in Massachusetts from 2017-18. From 2018-23, Dr Tafari-Ama was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies.
She curated the exhibition “Rum, Sweat and Tears (RST)” at the Flensburg Maritime Museum in Germany (2016-17) and published several articles and books including “Blood, Bullets and Bodies: Sexual Politics Below Jamaica’s Poverty Line”, “Lead in the Veins” (poetry) and the award-winning novel “Up for Air: This Half has never been Told!”.
Tuli Mekondjo
Tuli Mekondjo explores in her artistic practice the construction of identity politics in the shadow of Namibia’s violent past – as a German and later South African colony. She uses a variety of materials and media in her artistic work, including natural silk, embroidery, photo transfer, earth, colour, resin and mahangu (millet). In this way, she creates images and installations that often refer to historical photographs from the colonial era and reflect them in a new form.
Tuli Mekondjo was born in Angola to Namibian parents who had joined the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO in exile. As a freelance artist, she has realised numerous exhibitions and received the prestigious Villa Romana Art Prize in 2024, among others.
In 2023, her work was shown at Frieze London, Art Central Hong Kong, EXPO Chicago, ARCO Lisboa and Art Joburg. She is represented in several international collections.
Christian Hajer
Christian Hajer studied landscape planning and urban and regional planning in Berlin and Venice. He has worked in planning communication for the Topography of Terror, the Federal Chancellery, Tempelhof Airport and the Humboldt Forum. His current areas of interest include climate adaptation and sustainable urban development.
Since the 1990s, he has been travelling as a freelance speaker and consultant for international delegations on planning issues in Berlin and the region.
Andrea Scholz
Andrea Scholz is curator for transcultural collaboration in the Ethnologisches Museum and Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin. She is a trained anthropologist with a focus on Amazonia and has been working in various collaborative projects with indigenous communities and educational projects, mainly in Latin America.
Patrick Helber
Patrick Helber studied History and Political Science in Tübingen and Dublin and received his PhD in Modern and Contemporary History in Heidelberg in 2014. His book “Dancehall and Homophobia” is about postcolonial perspectives on Jamaican history and culture. He lives in Berlin, works at the Ethnological Museum as a research assistant in the field of education and outreach, and hosts a radio program on Caribbean popular culture. In addition, Patrick Helber has been putting out reggae, ska and dancehall on vinyl under the name Scampylama Sound since 2003.
Alex Stolze
Alex Stolze is an East German Jewish musician, producer and songwriter. His art reflects a life spent engaging with his Jewish identity and connection with Israel. He is active in educational work and organises events, including music festivals and those related to the Jewish community. Alex is currently involved in an the project “Interwoven memory(s)”.
Marc Wrasse
Marc Wrasse is curator for education and mediation at the Academy of the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. He is currently developing educational formats for a sustainable examination of the colonial legacy in the history of the site. Previously, he worked for the Jewish Museum Berlin for a long time on communicating German-Jewish history, its ruptures and its resilience.