Katrin Winkler

BPA at Gropius Studios

In their presentation at the Gropius Bau, Katrin Winkler and Dina Khouri engaged with the politics of representation and the consequences of erasure: frames, and what escapes them. Their works evoke contested landscapes and marginalised historical narratives as well as the practice of commemoration and of resistance.

At the Gropius Bau, Winkler presented towards memory, a video installation and research project in collaboration with Namibian women who as children were sent to the former GDR during the Namibian struggle for independence and against apartheid, which started in 1979. After the fall of the Berlin Wall they were abruptly sent back to Namibia. The video installation is based on archival research, video interviews, as well as contemporary commemorations of 25 years of independence and the genocide of the Herero and Nama. The project scrutinises the entanglement of German and Namibian politics dealing with the consequences and (in-)visibilities of colonialism, genocide, displacement and apartheid.

The photo and video still series pass it on and she will know (part 1 + part 2), commissioned by Lagos Biennial, was also presented at the Gropius Bau. The work is dealing with aspects of the anti-colonial Women’s War in Nigeria in 1929 where women rebelled against the imposition of taxes by the British colonial government. The use of palm leaves played a crucial role in the protests; they were passed from one hand to another instead of flyers in order to know where and when to gather for the protest. Through both text and imagery, the digital montages address this history by presenting fictionalised and interview-based conversations between women who relate to that time until today.