Kolonie

film-/sound-installation, videoloop 9 min.
Julian Rohrhuber, 2007

Kolonie shows a network of streets and shines a slightly different light on their apparent commonplaceness. Some of the street names may ring a bell, since they refer to persons who were active in what may be euphemistically called 'the national struggle for the German African colonies'. The area was built by the NS-government, for which the names honour those who were considered to be their precendents in national and racist thought. The street constellation documents a self-description taking its conviction from identification with power over another place, Africa.

One of the most visible protagonists of the German imperialism in Africa (which is up to this day often simply described as 'adventure' or 'research') was Carl Peters who already became ill-famous in the late 19th century, but was highly regarded by the nazis. As a result of a local initiative the Karl-Peters-Straße was renamed in 2000, after a newspaper article had been published about his brutal engagement. Nevertheless, the other street names in the area were kept unchanged. The network of colonial identity projection remains as a structure.






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