The Guestbook
2019 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
15:00 minutes (looped)
Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper
Addressing the legacy of colonialism, The Guestbook by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper is a slow-paced, black-and-white film exploring the German colony of Togoland, now the Republic of Togo. The guestbook in question—a thin, battered copy that Do Do, the Togolese protagonist of the film, finds in Berlin’s State Library—is filled with the signatures of colonial-era explorers. The plot follows Do Do as he seeks out Treptower Park, where the JAZZ musician Kwassi Bruce was once exhibited in a human zoo in the first German Colonial Exhibition. The protagonist then goes to a Chinese massage parlor that used to be a Chinese restaurant called Nanjing, where Zhou Enlai, a key figure in improving Sino-African relations, was said to be a regular attendee. Zhou often went to the restaurant to strategize with communist military commander Zhu De. Many of the names and locations in this fictional story also appear in Chihying’s academic, lecture-style video, The Sculpture . Filming with an entirely non-white cast, Chihying touches upon the rarely represented multicultural characters of Berlin, and poses questions about anti-colonial solidarity. Did Zhou Enlai encounter African peers in Berlin, and what impact would they have had on his thinking? What has been left unresolved since he helped bring African states closer to China in the 1950s and 60s? Through reviewing a significant period in China and Africa’s mutual history, The Guestbook attempts to construct an alternative historical line. The work attempts to unpack and refocus the ignored historical fragments that might form the basis for current Sino-African political relations, and the potential realities of a Sinocentric future for Africa.
Through his artistic career, Musquiqui Chihying has striven to dislocate and reconstruct established modes of behavior within systems and structures of power. In his recent work, Chihying turns to historical research to explore the shifting ideological attachments of three different regions—Europe, Africa, and East Asia—in an increasingly globalized world. Gregor Kasper grew up in (previously East) Germany within the post-communist transformation processes after the Cold War. Working across film, video, sound, and installation, his artistic practice is concerned with the construction and mediation of history and remembrance.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » SLASH PARIS
Météo des forêts — La MABA — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Météo des forêts — La MABA — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Météo des forêts Exhibition Film, installation, mixed media Upcoming Julien Prévieux et Virginie Yassef, L’Arbre, 2009 — Image : Élie Godard Film Super 8 transféré sur DVD — 7 min 18 — Ed 4 + 2 Courtesy des artistes Météo des forêts In about 1 month: January 18 → April 7, 2024 La MABA présente, du 18 janvier au 7 avril 2024, Météo des forêts : une exposition collective réunissant des travaux d’artistes de diverses générations travaillant différents médiums (dessin, photographie, vidéo, sculpture, installation…)...
© » KADIST
Nick Mauss
2015As in other Mauss’ works that often look unfinished, the drawings in Untitled seem ever at the phase of the sketch, his segments as if they may uproot and reorient themselves at any moment...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Singular Screens – Cinema, the way you want it | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles SIFA 2020 September 4, 2020 As Singapore gets used to life under Phase 2 of our COVID-19 relaxation measures, players like Singapore Festival of the Arts (SIFA) – or its gentle rebrand SIFA v2.020 – are responding with programmes that are welcoming us back into a semblance of normalcy...
© » KADIST
Reza Aramesh
2016The photographed plaster heads set against the idyllic landscapes of the south of England, subvert the process of image production and memory...
© » ARTEFUSE
Art Basel reveals 287 leading galleries and expanded city-wide program for its 2024 edition in Basel, Switzerland (News) - ArteFuse Art Basel reveals 287 leading galleries and expanded city-wide program for its 2024 edition in Basel, the first led by the show’s new Director Maike Cruse With 287 premier galleries from 40 countries and territories, Art Basel will once again bring together the international art world at its marquee fair in Basel, Switzerland...
© » KADIST
Chen Shaoxiong
2007After engaging primarily with video and photography for more than a decade, Chen turned to painting to explore the issue of urban change and memories—both personal and collective...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Vietnam's post-war writers; Burmese voices in book | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar BACC October 8, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
© » THE INDEPENDENT
Artists' Postcards: A Compendium, By Jeremy Cooper | The Independent | The Independent Of interest to students of art and deltiologists (collectors of postcards) alike, Jeremy Cooper's extensively illustrated book provides the first critical study of the place of the humble postcard in the history of art...
© » KADIST
Lim Sokchanlina
2018The photographic series Wrapped Future II by Lim Sokchanlina brings fences used on construction sites to enclose the surrounding areas, to different locations, lakes, valleys and forests; and places them at the center of works to obscure the beautiful Cambodian landscape...