4 p.m.
Guided tour of the exhibition with artist Christine Lemke, initiator of the project

5 p.m.
Performative reading of Lost in Representation, an audio piece by Serge Fouha & Jelka Plate

Hilar una frase / Wörter aneinanderreihen: screening of film excerpts / artist talk with Karen Michelsen Castañón

This event will be hosted in German. We welcome proposals and questions in other languages.

 

 

Serge Fouha & Jelka Plate – Lost in Representation mirrors the biographies of the actors Louis Brody (born in Douala, Cameroon in 1892) and Serge Fouha (born in Yaounde, Cameroon in 1982). Both emigrated to Germany in their time. Using the setting of a German language course their answers to the standardized questions “What’s your name?”, “Where do you come from?”, “Why did you come to Germany?” undermine the expectations of the interviewer.

 

Serge Fouha is an actor and director for film and theatre. He was trained at the theatre company Ngoti in Yaounde, Cameroon, Espace Gambidi Ouagadougu in Burkina Faso, Filmarche e.V. Berlin and was a fellow of Internationales Forum Theatertreffen Berlin 2011. He worked - amongst others - with Martin Ambarra, Lukas Fusi, Bernadette LaHengst, Bernd Freitag, Ulrich Köhler. He lives and works in Berlin since 2011.

Jelka Plate studied Fine Arts as well as set and costume design at HfbK Hamburg. Her artistic research practice is mostly based on interviews. Her work was shown at e.g. Deveron Arts Scotland, Skulpturenpark_Berlin Zentrum, thealit Bremen and Goethe Institut Ouagadougou. As a set designer, she works amongst others with the performance group Hajusom – transnationale Kunst, Bernadette LaHengst and Vanessa Stern. She lives in Berlin.

 

 

Karen Michelsen Castañón - Hilar una frase / Stringing words together (2016, HD, 33 min, Spanish with subtitles) incorporates excerpts of interviews with Pedro Abreu Tejera, Daniela Carrasco, Katty Moreno Bravo and Mauricio Pereyra, who share their experiences with the so-called German “integration” language courses, reflecting upon the system in which these are embedded. What does “integration” mean for the everyday lives of those who take the German integration courses in Berlin?

 

Karen Michelsen Castañón is a visual artist and filmmaker. She studied Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal and HfbK in Hamburg. Her work deals with the ways (colonial) histories are written and encompasses textiles, photographs, installations and essayistic films. She also works with the association Compa Berlin (explores alternative ways of incorporating the body in education) and colectivo qellcay (decolonial education). She lives and works in Berlin.