Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ART

Berlin neighbours shocked by huge ‘bloody refugee’ mural

In typical Berlin style, an artist painted a massive mural with political overtones, stretching the entire length of an apartment building. But residents are far from pleased.

Published: 22 June 2016 10:54 CEST

Berlin neighbours shocked by huge 'bloody refugee' mural

Photo: I Love Tegel/DPA.

The mural depicts a girl in a nightgown, bloodied from the head down and posed as if she were leaning against the building on which she is drawn, perhaps peering into the distance. Below her also appears to be a floor covered in blood.

Across from her in a forest is a naked, handcuffed body, pierced by arrows.

It’s one of many larger-than-life painted political statements that add to Berlin’s charm as an avant-garde city, and which draw tourists each year to walking tours of its street art.

But the 42-metre-high mural on a wall in the Tegel neighbourhood of north Berlin has left residents feeling anything but charmed.

“It’s very, very frightening,” one mother of a five-year-old boy who attends a nearby Kindergarten told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel on Wednesday.

“The worst is the impaled man… There is so much suffering in the world, but you don’t have to also present it to us in such a big way.”

The mother isn’t alone: other residents in the neighbourhood have started to collect signatures to petition for the painting to be removed.

The mural is the work of Spanish artist Borondo and is supposed to be related to the refugee crisis, according to a spokesperson from the housing association Gewobag, which commissioned the art.

It is part of a series called Artpark Tegel which so far consists of five murals by the street art network Urban Nation.

There is also sensitivity to the graphic work because several people have killed themselves by jumping off the building next door, Felix Schönebeck, a spokesperson for the neighbourhood initiative I Love Tegel told Tagesspiegel.

Then there is the refugee home being planned for the area.

“There will be people living there who fled from wars and lived through horrible things. For this reason I also find the image inappropriate,” said 26-year-old law student.

But the spokesperson from Gewobag said the picture depicts hope as well as pain.

“The child sees a person who despite being hit with arrows can stand upright and is strong.”

Photo: DPA.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

Url copied to clipboard!