“What if history is haunted by cyclical violence, precisely because it has not been told properly? What if the ghosts of the past, inhabit the present, as monsters and birds? And what are heroines for?” These questions are at the very center of Grada Kilomba’s opening lecture-performance. Kilomba guides us into her unique artistic practice of performing knowledge, in which she gives body, voice, form, movement and image to her own writings. In her ouevre knowledge is translated into visual and sculptural language and becomes performative storytelling. “What stories are told? How are they told? Where are they told? And told by whom?” Kilomba asks. In this first part, titled Heroines, Birds and Monsters, Kilomba explores the concepts of post-coloniality, violence and erasure, memory and forgetting, ritual and knowledge production as well as the concepts of amnesia and repetition.
© Pablo Saborido
Prof. Dr. Grada Kilomba is a Berlin-based Portuguese artist, whose work draws on memory, trauma and post-colonialism. Using performance, staged reading, video, photography, large scale sculptural and sonic installations, the artist interrogates concepts of knowledge, violence and repetition. Kilomba’s work is best known for her subversive practice of storytelling, in which she creates a poetic and immersive imagery, giving body, voice, form and movement to her own writings. “What stories are told? How are they told? Where are they told? And told by whom?” are constant questions in Kilomba’s body of work. Kilomba holds a distinguished Doctorate in Philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin, and in 2023 the artist was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by University of ISPA, Lisbon. She has been a guest Professor at several international universities, such as Humboldt University - Berlin; the University of Legon, Accra; and the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, among others.
The Cornelia Goethe Colloquia are an open discussion forum for interdisciplinary gender studies. Anyone interested is cordially invited!
ATTENTION:
This event will take place as the inaugural lecture of the Angela Davis Visiting Professorship on Tuesday 02.07.24 from 6-8 pm in lecture hall HZ 5. Further information and events on the visiting professorship can be found at cgc.uni-frankfurt.de.