Pour Noubia
Mohamed Bourouissa
Marta Herford, Germany

With a selec­tion of films, pho­tographs, instal­la­tions and sculp­tures, Mohamed Bourouis­sa has put togeth­er works that bear wit­ness to the dif­fer­ent forms of vio­lence that result from colo­nial­ist ide­olo­gies. Whether it is ordi­nary and triv­i­alised or insti­tu­tion­al, it is a vio­lence that he and many oth­er racialised peo­ple have known and suf­fered from. Nev­er­the­less, Bourouissa’s works are far from being con­fronta­tion­al. On the con­trary, while they allow us to delve into the inti­mate sphere of their pro­tag­o­nists, they tes­ti­fy to a feel­ing of human­i­ty in which dig­ni­ty tri­umphs over humil­i­a­tion. Art becomes a strat­e­gy of defence and self-empow­er­ment that enables indi­vid­u­als to reap­pro­pri­ate their own his­to­ry – whether that of a pris­on­er, a for­mer patient of a psy­chi­atric clin­ic or Bourouissa’s aunt Noubia (pho­to), who immi­grat­ed to Osnabrück and lived there until she died.

The show is curat­ed by Guest Cura­tor Ori­ane Durand.