From June 18th to 20th, 2021

MARKK Museum • Rothenbaumchaussee 64, 20148 Hamburg

Dancers and artists from Hamburg and Kigali perform a political decolonization of the future at DECOLONYCITIES in Hamburg’s urban space. If the common history is made tangible, this common history can be better reflected in the future. Through the project, colonial history in Hamburg is reflected and questions are addressed such as: What influence did Hamburg have on German colonialism? What is the colonial past between Kigali and Hamburg? How is this history archived? And what is the relationship between this history and the people in Kigali and Hamburg today? The MARKK in Hamburg is a place of performance and the center of these questions. It is precisely here that the shared colonial history of these two cities is questioned. The visibility and experience of an archive are seen performatively and artistically through the images and the body. DECOLONYCITIES is a project that works at the intersection of dance, visual arts and media work and a process of decolonization that is made tangible. Not lecturing, not didactic. It is not about understanding knowledge or facts, it is about a change of perspective, an artistic approach to this topic in a different way: organically and experientially.

New narratives emerged and in this process and before the rehearsals started in Hamburg, the visual artist Dolph Banza started an encounter with rwandan objects storaged in the MARKK-Museum. He said about it:

Many generations ago my family was artistic, they were carving masks and that was interrupted by colonization. They had to switch from mask carving to technical work. I thank that DECOLONYCITIES is about gaining back what we lost with colonization, that’s why to me this project is interesting. I’ve been drawing objects which have not been found in Rwanda and I’m going to take the visual information that I get from the objects to create new creations that reflect more the Rwandan spirit. The objects I’m drawing were brought here many years ago and when they were taking those objects were very valuable to the Rwandan society. They had names, they had functions, they were sacred.

Out of these research a project called DECOLONYOBJECTS started and through this encounter a series of drawings were exhibited at the ZWISCHENRAUM im MARKK-Museum. At the end of the project Dolph Banza realize a Graphic Novel:

DECOLONYCITIES GRAPHIC NOVEL 3

[Concept/Choreography] Yolanda Gutiérrez
[By and with] Babou Tight King, Moussa Issiaka, Eliane Umuhire, Frank Mugisha, Celine Manzi (digital aus Kigali)

[Management] Gesine Kästner
[Assistance] Lucia Lilen Heffner
[Dramaturgical collaboration] Tobias Funke
[Public relations] Andrea Möller
[Audio Artist] Igor Sheba
[Foto-Video Documentation Hamburg] Munimum Photography
[Narrators voice] Zainab X and Willem Holley
[Visual artists] Chris Schwagga und Dolph Banza                                                                          [Fotos]  Chris Schwagga                                                                                                                           [Film Kigali] Serge Girishya
[Poem and voice at Film] Greta Ingabire

A production von yolanda gutierrez & projects  and MARKK

Funded by Elbkulturfonds – Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg.
Supported by the NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR initiative. Aid program dance