“I arrived in Germany in 1997, at the age of 20, with 300 Deutsche Marks in my pocket and only one suitcase,” says Bonaventure curator Soh Bejeng Ndikung, who recently took over the reins of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. (HKW, House of World Cultures). “I came into a society that was very racialized, and where people like me experienced a lot of racism.”
Addressing in person to The arts journal, he specifies that he is sitting close to where the African continent was divided by the Western imperial powers in 1884 during the Berlin conference which was held in the former building of the Reichskanzlerpalais: “If I didn’t have that in mind, I might not be able to do the job the way I do. I believe in curatorial justice”. In front of Ndikung’s office, a recent exhibition by investigative artists Forensic Architecture on the far-right killings in Hanau in 2020 is being dismantled.
Ndikung succeeds German conservative Bernd Scherer, who retired at the end of December after 17 years in office. It is significant for Germany, at least symbolically, that he was appointed to the HKW, one of the country’s most important cultural institutions, whose curvilinear structure Berliners playfully call “the pregnant oyster”. . Built deliberately high to be seen from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) above the Berlin Wall, the building was originally a congress hall donated by the United States to West Germany. 66 years later, the wall no longer holds, but Germany faces new divisions.
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin
©Flickr
Since 1987, the HKW has served as a national forum for contemporary art and critical debate. As the first African-born, black director – one of the few such institutional leaders in Germany – his appointment is a sign that his national institutions are beginning to diversify.
Born in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé in 1977, Ndikung left the former German colony to study biochemistry (in which he has a doctorate) in Berlin. He eventually left science to found the Berlin exhibition space Savvy Contemporary in 2008. Over time, he has become a leading voice in the German debate on looted art and restitution, having contributed to or organized some of the most prestigious international art exhibitions in the world, including Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens in 2015, as well as president as a member of the jury of the Venice Biennale 2022. Last year, Ndikung left his position as artistic director of the Sonksbeek 20-24 biennial in the Netherlands due to the “precarious and ultimately unbearable” working conditions he and his team face, writing in an open letter to the organizing foundation that they had been “victims of sexism and institutional racism”.
He now finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place with his new position, which is also his most important in a state setting. On the one hand, it must circumvent a stifling bureaucracy to bring forward voices that have been historically ignored for decades, if not centuries. It must also respond to the growing frustrations of artists from the Global South and their diasporas – who lack power over their representation in the art world – without fear of scrutiny, silence or censorship. In short, he finds himself at the center of a culture war which breaks out on several occasions in Germany, whether in Documenta from last year or at the Berlin Biennale.
“When I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror brushing my teeth, I don’t worry about diversity issues,” Ndikung says, punctuating his sentences with meaningful pauses. “Because the world I live in East various. While these predominantly white institutions just want to have a drop of color and fetishize diversity, we actually practice not just diversity of peoples, but of epistemologies.”
Ndikung will lead the HKW with a team of 17
Last month, Ndikung’s 17-person curatorial team was announced at a press conference in HKW’s wood-panelled auditorium. It includes Senegalese curator Marie Helene Pereira, Colombian artist Carlos Maria Romero (alias Atabey), Filipino activist Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo and Cameroonian curator Dzekashu MacViban, as well as Can Sungu, the artistic director of Berlin’s Sinema Cultural Center Transtopia. Ndikung called them on stage one by one while local band The Swag played covers of Toni Braxton, The Roots and Burna Boy. “What I do know is that if this house wants to be the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, it has to do better. This must be reflected in the team, in the program and in the visitors,” says Nidkung. The arts journal.
The team’s goal, Ndikung said at the time, is to contribute to the understanding of a world “that is pregnant with many other worlds”. A world “confident enough to break away from the universe and call itself the ‘pluriverse'”. Over the next few years, HKW’s program will focus on dance workshops, cultures of remembrance and the consequences of colonial history.
Yet Ndikung’s appointment also raises fears that he could become a lightning rod for charged political debates in Germany. Tamil writer and researcher Sinthujan Varatharajah also worries that the HKW will now have to make up for the lack of diversity in the arts nationwide. Additionally, although Ndikung has been a Berliner for nearly 20 years, his global pedigree, Varatharajah says becoming HKW manager makes him another international diversity recruit who opposes local ethnic minority communities. Varatharajah addresses this issue in his book English in Berlin: exclusions in a cosmopolitan society (2022, co-authored with German-Afghan scholar Moshtari Hilal), in which they argue that many German arts institutions “diversify their programming by inviting people from other countries and places, while deliberately excluding racialized communities that exist and work locally”.
My goal is to try to build bridges rather than destroy them. And for that, we have to talk
Barely six weeks after Ndikung was announced as HKW’s next director in 2021, the daily Die Welt published an article in which he was accused of sympathizing with efforts to boycott Israel with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This follows a Facebook post he made about Palestine in 2014 in which he wrote: “They will pay a million for every drop of blood in GAZA! Palestine will be free… rain or shine! “. The controversy culminated with the intervention of German Culture and Media Commissioner Claudia Roth, prompting Ndikung to issue a statement distancing himself from BDS.
While expressing support for BDS is not illegal in Germany, joining the movement, founded or not, can lead to social and professional reprisals. When asked to explain his point of view on the subject, Ndikung appears more measured than before: “Coming from the world of culture and science, I am against cultural boycotts. In creative processes and artistic work, exclusions per se are not my modus operandi. I strongly advocate taking every opportunity to talk to each other even in the most difficult situations! My goal is to try to build bridges rather than destroy them. And for that, we need to talk. It’s about understanding and reconciliation, and that’s always been my goal.”
Ndikung’s appointment has both caused fanfare and ruffled feathers within the German establishment, and raises the question of how he will reconcile broader discussions around decolonization with the question of Palestine. “I’m also in a learning process, aren’t I? In all humility, it’s a step-by-step process. We have to learn not to rush to conclusions… There is no not just one way, no one has a monopoly on the truth,” he said. said. With the first HKW events scheduled for early June, expectations are high and Ndikung is of a fighting spirit: “I believe that art can shake the foundations on which the world is built.”
