to build to bury to remember

Sarah Ama Duah erects her new living latex monuments in unexpected spaces of the Humboldt Forum. They honour lives that are neither past nor commemorated by other monuments. Hidden objects merge with the bodies and provide clues to biographies that would otherwise often remain secret or unseen.

The artist thus continues to develop her performance to build to bury to remember, in which she critically and performatively examines monuments. Together, the performers reflect on the fetishised status of historical monuments, creating hybrid forms between sculpture and body made of latex. Whom do they portray? Whom do they remember?

As part of the theme days Hide or Tell?, the performers appear as fluid, enigmatic statues, entering into dialogue with the historical sculptures of the Berlin Palace. What stories can be sensed beneath the gleaming gold of their surfaces?

From a Black feminist perspective, Duah explores the relationship between bodies and sculpture, with Afro-diasporic narratives playing a central role in her artistic practice. She engages with sculptural appreciation and cultures of remembrance. What alternative forms of sculptural appreciation are possible? To whom—or what—do we want to dedicate them? And how do we address the void left behind when a colonial monument is dismantled?