A Critical Tour of the Exhibition
Viewing Art from an Anti-Colonial Perspective

With Jeanne-Ange Wagne (artistic researcher, art and cultural mediator) and Amadou Hemboum (scientist)

During the Nazi era, Hanna Bekker vom Rath showed courage by organising ‘secret exhibitions’ in her private flat in Berlin. She showed works by artists who had been discredited by the Nazis. Today, however, it is extremely important to look at this art from an anti-colonial perspective. For the Europeans manifested their imperialist claim to power not only through political or territorial superiority, but also in their approach to art. This also included the assumption that art was a Western construct. The dominant understanding of art is therefore still largely characterized by the binary construction of self and other, that is, a division between one’s ‘own’ art, i.e., European or Western art, and art that represents the so-called ‘other’ from a European perspective. This way of thinking thus constructs a logic of norm and deviation.

How can the art of Hanna Bekker vom Rath be viewed in a reflective way that does not ignore the violent aspects of the collection’s creation? How can the institution of the museum in general become a place of encounter that breaks with hegemonic structures and creates space for decolonial perspectives?

Jeanne-Ange Wagne is an art historian, art mediator and creative, who engages in artistic research on (German) remembrance culture, colonial history and colonial provenance research. As a freelance art mediator, she regularly offers critical mediation formats for the public program of cultural and art institutions most recently for Villa Oppenhein, Dekoloniale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art as well as the 12th Berlin Biennale. Until October 2023 she also worked for the German branch of the transnational research project “The Restitution of Knowledge”, at the department of Art History at Technische Universität Berlin where in 2022 and 2023 she co-curated and coordinated the event series KuK-Tuesdays: Dislocation.

This event is part of the series FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES, an intersectional, discursive accompanying programme curated by Sonja Eismann (editor of Missy Magazine) and Josephine Papke (author and journalist).

Due to the limited number of participants, please register here in advance. Public events are included in the admission fee. Meeting point: Ticket desk in the foyer.