Yolanda Gutiérrez

Using video mappings and interventions, eight artists from former colonies critically examine Hamburgs huge Bismarck statue and the way Germany's colonial history is dealt with.

Otto von Bismarck is one of the key figures in the colonization of Africa. And the huge Bismarck statue in the middle of Hamburg will be restored from 2020 to 2022 at a cost of around nine million euros. Thus it is currently at the center of the debate about how we shall deal with German colonial history as a society.

With BISMARCK DEKOLONIAL, a change of perspective is now stimulated: The Mexican-German choreographer and curator Yolanda Gutiérrez works together with musician and dancer »Stone« from Cameroon, visual artist Vitjitua Ndjiharine from Namibia, musician, dancer and choreographer Isack Peter Abeneko from Tanzania, the dancer and choreographer Moussa Issiaka from Togo, the Rwandan illustrator Dolph Banza and the Mexican multimedia artist Fabian Villasana aka Calavera. Since April, they have commonly been working on collective, decolonizing artistic countervoices, focusing on artistic narratives of formerly colonized peoples, in the form of a lab. The results will be presented in August in the form of video mappings on the statue itself and live performances around its pedestal.