Frederike Moormann
Interpretation of a Map
26 October – 26 November 2023IDEAL Leipzig/ Project Space Namibia
Poster Installation & Activation
Electric telegraphy was a technical and social precondition for radio. The timeframe for the development of this technology corresponded with the German colonial period. Many documents describe the use of mobile wireless radio stations in the war against the Herero and Nama in 1904-1908 as a "decisive breakthrough" or "baptism of fire". However, coded message transmission via acoustic instruments (horns, bells, drums, etc.) has existed for several thousand years. In various regions of the world, including Namibia and Germany, for example, there was a coded form of acoustic telecommunication via horns. Our transnational and both scientific and artistic research deals with the history of violence in telecommunications infrastructure and transnational counter-narratives in acoustic telecommunication through horns.
While working on this project, I was confronted with the political power structures that are still at work and lead to our collective "mis-education" as local Namibians. We lack historical education and knowledge about our country, about the colonial infrastructural histories that contain valuable information about how the connections to Namibia's natural resources were made." (Tuli Mekondjo in an interview with Angelika Waniek & Frederike Moormann)
Another counter-narrative to the military map, which was previously drawn large on the ground with chalk, is the interpretation by Robert Machiri (Zimbawe) and Gundolf Nandico (Germany). They take the drawings of the map – which is still much smaller than the landscape it is trying to control – as a score and translate it into sound through percussion and Vogel horn.
The work Interpretation of a map // Verklanglichung einer Karte follows a collaborative artistic practice that attempts to touch history at the point where it has gaps. The work will be shown simultaneously at IDEAL artspace in Leipzig and Project Space in Windhoek, Namibia. In spring 2024, it will be performed in an expanded form as a performative audio walk at the RAMPE Theater in Stuttgart.
Interpretation of a Map consisted of a performative book release between Windhoek and Leipzig, a poster installation in public space, and two performative activations in Leipzig and Windhoek.
Documentation IDEAL artspace
Artistic Team – Frederike Moormann, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Angelika Waniek
Musical Activation Leipzig – Luka Mukhavele, Gundolf Nandico
Performative Activation Windhoek – Tuli Mekondjo
Mixing – Lefteris Krysalis
Curation IDEAL Leipzig – Gregor Peschko, Clara Hofmann
Curation Project Space Namibia - Frieda Lühl