Exhibition to express the legitimacy of the black ‘womxn’
A multimedia exhibition in response to the legacy of colonial monuments titled ‘Ma Ndili’ by artists, Nelago Shilongoh and Shomwatala Shivute will open on 14 November at 18:30 at the Goethe-Institut.
The exhibition will be open to the public up until 30 November.
The title Ma Ndili means, ‘where I am’, in Oshiwambo, which is a meditative term speaking to one’s self reflection, identity and positioning, and in this context, in the shadows of colonial patriarchy.
Shivute is a cultural practitioner who works as a photographer and curator and she is interested in notions of shared histories, memory and memorialization and how art is a medium that can assist in interrogate and unpack our histories.
Shilongoh is a theatre maker, researcher and curator, who is interested in works that interrogate views on placement, inheritance, forms of self-determination and protest. She has sought to absorb herself in multidisciplinary work that allow for spaces of interactive experience and engagement.
According to the artists, the colonial patriarchy is reflected in the three monuments, The Rider memorial (Reiterdenkmal), housed in the courtyard of the Old Fortress (Alte), the Curt von Francois Monument in fron of the City of Windhoek headquarters and the War Memorial to the fallen Schutztruppe in Zoo Park is challenged by the performer and photographer, who seek to express the legitimacy of the black ‘womxn’.
“The narrative of the black womxn is a heroic one of survival and questioning and the exhibition displays the denial of the ambiguousness of monuments in post colonial Windhoek and addresses the political complexities and patriarchal significance of the sites,” they added.
The photographer and performer collaboratively reflect prevailing tensions, by attempting to recognise and interrogate the power dynamics between the two contrasting sites, where the previously invisible and silenced, becomes visible and heard.
