Namibia calls to passers-by in Berlin

On a walking street in Friedrichshain, Namibia provides a feast for the eyes.

Rather than the prevailing scenes of wildlife and landscapes most commonly associated with the country, the large glass windows of Berlin’s Fotogalerie Friedrichshain offer a glimpse of contemporary Namibian people and places in a documentary photography exhibition titled ‘Home of Mine’.

Passers-by peering in at the showing may catch sight of Windhoek city centre car guards, ice cream vendors, arts, alternative and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) communities, urban salons, Swakopmund and Groot Aub.

The exhibition, curated by Reframe Kollektiv and featuring images by 12 Namibian photographers, opened in Berlin on 1 September and closes this week.

“There was a very positive response in general by the Berlin public,” says Fotogalerie Friedrichshain director Felix Hawran.

“We were quite happy to have a fresh project from a country that not too many people know too much about. Of course, people have heard about Namibia, but some Germans said they hadn’t heard about the colonial part, and that there was also this German history.”

A photo series depicting historical sites by Janet Mwatongwe provides this German colonial context in the exhibition’s first room.

“I think the general storyline in Berlin is really a politically correct one. They really want these projects. They want authentic, fresh views, decolonisation.

“They stand for that. That’s also why the senate is happy to give money to such a great project, so the official reception has been very positive,” says Hawran, who also spotlights a gallery visit by a group of 16 and 17-year-olds.

“They came, and what we were talking about a lot is the different ways to make a living that we could see in the documentary photography, like selling ice cream, taking care of the parking situation in the city, and getting to Windhoek from a remote, satellite and rural part of the city,” says Hawran.

“I really wanted to get people into that reflection process, because it’s quite difficult from what we have in Germany. ‘Home of Mine’ really fits our idea of engaged social documentary photography, which means it is made by people who really know about their topic and who somehow have a personal relationship to it,” he says.

“Now we’re so globally connected that we can have the really authentic voices having documentaries by themselves, which is way more interesting to us, and that’s the way we want to continue working and luckily we have succeeded.”

‘Home of Mine’ will be on display at Fotogalerie Friedrichshain until 20 October, and featured a workshop by Natascha Anahita Nassir-Shahnian on 28 September.

‘Scarlet Ribbons’ (2023), a short film by Namibian film-maker Naomi Beukes and Birgit Stauber, will have its world premiere in the space on 19 October, and exhibition photographers Laimi Hawala and Shili Munyama will be in attendance.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com

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