• Fri 30 08 – Sun 01 12 2024 •
How the leopard got his claws
By YUSSIF MUSAH
Production assistance HANA ČERNIVEC, ŽIGA SEVER
Deputy production manager: TORBEN RÖSE
Not Afraid of Art - under this title, the academy members and international artists are collaborating with the Cologne art scene as part of a three-year project. The aim is to create a space for shared learning and to cultivate an understanding of the social and political potential of art.
The exhibition under the same name in the ADKDW Studio deals with the themes of power and fear and presents artistic positions by Barış Doğrusöz, Kanitha Tith, Anastasia Sosunova, Buket Isgören, and Žiga Sever.
Two interventions will be presented outside the ADKDW studio: The commissioned work How the Leopard got his claws by Yussif Musah at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum until 01 12 2024 and Asithukanga by Isaac Zavale until 01 09 2024 in the showcases of the UNG-5, at the Ebertplatz subway station.
Yussif Musah, born in 1997, studied painting and sculpture in Kumasi, Ghana. Commissioned by the Academy of the Arts of the World and in cooperation with the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (RJM), Ghanaian artist Yussif Musah has created a powerful mural and exhibition project that digs deeply into the photographic archives of the RJM and the Documentation Center and Museum of Migration in Germany (DOMiD). The title is inspired by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe's book of the same title, while the mural as part of the exhibition Not Afraid of Art, represents the culmination of Musah’s intensive artistic research within these archives over a period of six months.
What happens when photographic documents from the present meet colonial photographs? What connections can be made and what continuities can be identified?
In the first room, Musah presents a series of evocative drawings rooted in the photographic archives of DOMiD. Established in 1990 by migrant communities determined to address the lack of representation of migration history in Germany, this archive has grown into a significant collection of over 150,000 objects, photographs, documents, and audiovisual media from migrants across the globe. The artists’s work in this series looks into the everyday lives and struggles of migrants in Germany from the late 80s to recent years. Musah’s portraits, particularly those depicting sea rescues, emphasize the humanity of boat refugees, transforming what are often seen as faceless, collective bodies into individuals with unique stories.
The second room shifts focus to the historical photography collection of the RJM, which is closely linked to the height of colonial expansion from the late 19th to the early 20th century. The four-wall mural weaves together colonial-era photographs into a new, fictional narrative, closer to the personal readings of the artist. These images, taken between 1910 and 1957, include portraits of the Bamum royal family in Cameroon, architectural and landscape scenes from Kenya, a photo of two South African women, a portrait of a woman from Madagascar, and an image of cultural objects from Papua New Guinea.
Through this fragmented assembly of time, place, and people, Musah depicts migrations of both human and economic capital. The ocean, a recurring motif in his work, symbolizes the colonial maritime routes that transported photographs and objects to the RJM archive. The migrants and boat refugees documented in the DOMiD archive now traverse these same routes, creating a poignant connection between past and present.
The artist’s choice of black charcoal as his primary medium strips away distractions, directing attention to the essence of the subjects. The ephemerality of the drawings contrasts the practice of collecting and preserving, while also resonating with the fleeting memories that photographs attempt to capture. By rendering his figures larger-then-life proportions, he displaces the viewer from a position of comfort within the European episteme, instead creating a space of unease that demands deeper engagement.
What does it mean to reproduce colonial images? What are the dominant narratives and images that surround migration?
For further contextualization, visitors are encouraged to explore additional research and documentation materials available in the exhibition space.
Running date: Fri 30 08 - Sun 01 12 2024
Opening times: Tues - Sun | 10 am - 6 pm
Hours for Museumsnacht 2024:
Sat 02 11 2024 | 10 am - 6 pm and 7 pm - 02 am
Guided Tour in english language: 8 pm
Changed Opening times Thur 07 11 2024 | 10 am – 5 pm
Location: Kitchen, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, 1st floor
Ort: Cäcilienstraße 29-33, 50676 Cologne
Free entry
In cooperation with the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum.
