And Other Instruments: Decolonizing a Table. Camping mit Nammu (Niştiman Erdede & Bager Şen), Kiesgrube Hohentengen/Rheinufer, 23.7.–24.7.2022

Konzept und Projektleitung

Claudia Barth und Christof Nüssli

eastProjekt Website

With the artist duo Nammu we camp on the banks of the Rhine, while we learn what Switzerland has to do with the division of Kurdistan. And Other Instruments: Decolonizing a Table addresses the politics of display in times of decolonization. It merges art and activism through focusing on the complex political situation facing the Kurdish population in Eastern Turkey, as well as those of immigrants from the Middle East scattered throughout Europe, by reflecting on this table as a symbol of shame. The object of the table becomes a decolonizing artistic intervention confronting the repercussions of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) in the contemporary moment and ignites a search to correct historical representations. My personal experience as a Kurdish political refugee from Turkey inspired the need to decolonialize and confront the particular history of this object and to invite other artists to reflect on its significance for today.

Foto: Christoph Oeschger