On My Way Home
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('MMM') }}
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('YYYY') }}
| Admission with an exhibition ticket for the Ethnological Collections and Museum für Asiatische Kunst– 9 EUR |
| Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer. |
| Artist talk following the performance on Oct 3 |
| Start: Room 201 (2nd floor) |
| For people of all ages |
| No language skills required |
| Belongs to: Transkontinentale 2026 |
Sulwe is only three years old; she is “German-Kenyan”. Reinaldo Ribeiro is “queer” and “Afro-Brazilian”. Visa applications and bureaucracy shape their movements – and their identities. Who decides who they are or are allowed to be?
The ten performers play with a single material: bricks. The brick, together with the bodies that manipulate it, becomes the subject. Plunder is a practice dating back to the colonial era. For us, bricks are a symbol of reconstruction. At the Humboldt Forum, which has been engaged in coming to terms with the colonial history of ethnographic museums since its inception, visitors can experience first-hand how various artists bring decolonisation and democratisation to life.
ON MY WAY HOME is a performance, film and discussion, and uses personal stories to foster a sense of connection to decolonisation. What must be let go of so that we can build something new? We approach time in a non-linear way, offering a second and third chance (and as many as necessary) – so that new narratives and paradigms can emerge, enabling us to resist together. Join us and help build something new.
On My Way Home was developed for the Cologne Asphalt Festival 2025 at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum.
Cast
Performance: Dessa Ganda, Judith Alice Harder, Tatiana Mejía, Taiwo Ojudun, Reinaldo Ribeiro
Participants in the performance: Sebastião Abreu, Jack Bryton, Camille Badirou (Cami), Naomi Molilybo Ernst, Virginnia Ogechi Krämer, Luana Madikera, Raymond Oare, Noemia, Yunite, Nidal Bradlow
Directors: Reinaldo Ribeiro, Lucia Oiro
Video: Kefa Oiro
Accesibility Information
Brief description in plain language
“On My Way Home” is a performance lasting two and a half hours, but it can also be viewed in sections. The performance begins in Room 201 with a film. In the room, various small houses are built from 500 bricks, as if in a town. The dancers then collect the bricks again and, forming a long chain, carry them piece by piece down to the large foyer. There, they lay out a long line of bricks. The audience follows the dancers down the stairs into the foyer.
There are ten people on stage. They are working with bricks. They are using them to build something. They also take things away again. The piece is about the history of colonialism. Colonialism means one country taking power over another. In the process, people and their ways of life are oppressed. This often happens through violence. And traces of this violence can be found in the museum.
The piece asks: What do we need to change? What can we build anew? The piece invites us to reflect together on change and justice.
Sensory stimuli
Part of the performance involves a projection.
Atmosphere
Throughout the performance, audience members are free to move around the space. You can arrive later or leave earlier. The first part takes place in Room 201, after which the performance moves to the foyer. The audience can follow along and, if they wish, take part by moving bricks. To follow the entire performance, you will need to use the stairs. However, there is also a lift.
The lighting is dimmed in Room 201, whilst the foyer is well lit. There may also be draughts in the foyer.
Accessibility
The performance takes place without spoken language. Part of the performance moves via the stairs into the foyer. There is a wheelchair-accessible toilet and a changing places toilet (“Toilette für alle”). A tactile guidance system leads to Room 201.
Content Notes
The performance addresses the topic of colonialism.