Christine Meisner explores the colonial and postcolonial history of African countries. Her recent project The Present was inspired by Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. The story described in the book is based on the author's journey to Congo at the time when the country was colonized by the Belgian king Leopold II. The artist follows the writer's path, confronting the colonial history with current situation in countries once visited by the author.
Meisner presents footage realized on the basis of materials gathered during her year-and-a-half long journeys to Warsaw, Bruselles, London and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kinsagani. During the preparations, the artist established contact with a number of intellectuals and scholars (among others Olga Stanislawska, Zdzislaw Najder), she was also inspired by Ryszard Kapuscinski's books. The exhibition also features a series of drawings and texts by the author.
"Colonial, postcolonial and current events in Congo are conditioned by exploitation, slavery, tribal genocide, African world war, anarchy and terror aimed at civil population. What happened once, goes on till now."
Christine Meisner
Joseph Teodor Conrad Korzeniowski, known as Joseph Conrad visited Poland in 1890 in order to say goodbye to his relatives. Being in Brussels, he signed a contract for three years as the captain of a steamboat on the Congo river. Like many Europeans at the time, he also considered participating in the great and "civilized" mission of king Leopold II. Yet greed and exceptional brutality of the white traders and office workers, witnessed by Conrad already in Africa, have questioned faith in the moral structure of present social order. The author became severely sick and was force to terminate the contract and return to London after six months. He never fully recovered after this journey. Eight years later, when investigations of king Leopold's atrocities are underway in Europe, Conrad begins to write his memories. Over the last hundred years Conrad's novel was intensely analyzed and interpreted. Its title remains to be a symbol of Congo and the events that took place in that country. On the occasion of the recent elections in the DRC a public debate emerged in Germany on whether the Bundeswehr soldiers should be sent to the "heart of darkness".
The process of contemporary journeys confronts the author's Victorian perspective with the contemporary point of view of Congo citizens, burdened with reality and memories. Christine Meisner's film, just like Conrad's journey once, begins in Warsaw. The itinerary leads through Brussels, where Conrad signed a contract with the Societe Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut Congo. As a former colonial power, Belgium is strongly connected with the history of Congo. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Tervuren near Brussels, founded by king Leopold II with the money from his private Congo colony, provides a good insight into the beginning of this history. The EU headquarters, which took the decision to send the EUFOR peace mission to Congo (realized in Polish-Belgium-Germany cooperation), exaggerates the mission's actual progress. Matonge, Congo neighborhood in Brussels, has been a shelter for a countless number of immigrants for generations. The footage realized in Brussels contrasts the architecture, representing colonial actions, with reality in which aggressors and victims live side by side. Kinshasa is the artist's last stop - a hometown of immigrants who recount stories of their fatherland in Warsaw, Brussels and Berlin. Kinshasa was also the first destination of Joseph Conrad's journey. It was in former Leopoldville that Conrad first met the colonial office workers, whose inhuman behavior he described so convincingly in his novel. Christine Meisner's film journey aims at illustrating the events in the city that took place in the meantime. One issue becomes particularly important: how do the people of Congo perceive their colonial past from the perspective of the recent civil war and problems of the everyday struggle for life.
Christine Meisner lives and works in Berlin. Since seven years she has been working with colonial and postcolonial history, she is particularly interested in the outcome of cultural processes caused by occupation. Within Meisner's field of interest are various forms of memory ranging from written history to individual truths. The artist's projects are a result of years of research and journeys. The Present is an effect of the artist's stay in Warsaw within the a-i-r laboratory program at the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Bains::Connective residence in Brussels and a trip to Congo organized with the support of: Goethe Institut Warsaw and Johannesburg; Senatsverwaltung für Kultur Berlin; Stiftung Deutsch-Polnischer Kulturaustausch Warsaw; Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart; AIR Antwerpen.
Ch. Meisner's previous piece What Became (drawings, text, and video illustrating a transatlantic trade of slaves between west Africa and Brasil), was presented at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes (France), the Pinacoteca, Sao Paulo, the Museum of Modern Art, Recife as well as Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Cooperation:
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart; Foundation for the Polish-German Cooperation, Warsaw; Ifa, Institute fur Auslandsbeziehungen; Goethe Institut, Warsaw; Goethe Institut, Johannesburg; AIR Antwerpen, Belgia; Bains::Connective, Brussels; Polish Culture Institute, London; German Embassy, Warsaw; German Embassy, KinshasaRobert Bosch Stiftung; Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg Ministerium; Senatsverwaltung für Kultur, BerlinAdam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw; Pomost
Christine Meisner's exhibition The Present will open to the public on the 23rd of November, 6 p.m., at the Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw. The exhibition will feature video installations, drawings and texts. The project is realized within the framework of the Joseph Conrad Year.
Curated by: Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka
The exhibition will be on view until January 6th, 2008.