With the project "This is not only hi(s) story. This is OUR STORY," Nando Nkrumah wins the open competition for a contemporary art intervention in response to the equestrian statue of the “Great Elector” at Charlottenburg Palace.
Located in front of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, the equestrian statue of the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620–1688) will be re-evaluated and recontextualized through a contemporary artistic intervention for the duration of the special exhibition “Prussian Palaces. Colonial Histories. Biographies and Collections” (July 4 to October 31 2023). To this end, the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) initiated an international art competition in August 2022, which Nando Nkrumah (*1979 in Kumasi, Ghana, lives and works in Cologne) has won with his proposal for "This is not only hi(s)story. This is OUR STORY".
In the special exhibition, which is a part of this year’s theme "Elector – Emperor – Colonies," the SPSG is undertaking a survey of colonial references in its palaces, gardens and collections.
A total of sixty-nine artists from various countries, including Belgium, Germany, France, Ghana, Great Britain, Canada, Austria and the USA, submitted proposals. From these submissions, a five-person jury consisting of Dr. Ibou C. Diop, Julia Hagenberg, Dr. Natasha A. Kelly, Lerato Shadi and Prof. Dr. Christoph Martin Vogtherr, shortlisted three ideas which were then further developed by the artists in a second phase and presented to the jury at the end of November. The submission by Nando Nkrumah was ultimately selected by the jury. He will now present "This is not only hi(s)story. This is OUR STORY" in the courtyard of Charlottenburg Palace.
The draft submission offers an introduction to the planned intervention: four high pedestals made of wood encircle the equestrian statue of Frederick William and the chained figures at its base. Here the artist thematises Brandenburg's involvement in trade and in the slave trade on the coast of South-West Africa and refers to the fates of the people killed and abducted through slavery and the theft of their dignity. The stelae stand for the elements "unity," "truth", "freedom" and "courage," which the artist defines as basic prerequisites for the deconstruction of colonial continuities and the creation of sustainable empowerment. Using augmented reality, which visitors can readily call up on their own smartphones via QR codes, four statues are projected onto the courtyard in front of Charlottenburg Palace, allegorically representing the elements described. The coordination of the virtual sculptures with the equestrian statue generates a dynamic field of tension between the figures and the surrounding built environment. The newly created compositions are to be understood as an invitation to renegotiate entrenched images of history and to initiate debate on historical responsibility.
Nando Nkrumah is a visual artist with Ghanaian-German roots. His life’s journey serves as inspiration and as a driving force for his artistic practice. Ghana's mythology and history play a significant role, as does the opening up of new spaces in Germany. He uses both classical techniques such as painting and digital technologies to this end. Nkrumah's most recent works include the augmented reality installation "JAMESTOWN ARbotage" in Jamestown, Accra (2019) and the intervention "Conversations" in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne (2020).
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