This exhibition sheds a light on the topical relevance of German colonial history and thus the relevance of anti-Black racism, which is a reality felt by many every day.
Through multiple perspectives, BLIND SPOTS EXPOSED aims to bring the discourse to a broader level in a sustainable way.

The goal is to expose the countless blind spots that describe the inability of the white majority to recognize racism when it happens, to identify occurrences of it within oneself and to acknowledge it as an acute problem. In Germany, racism is treated as a topic too touchy to be named as such. But it already starts with ostensibly harmless stereotyping based on different body characteristics. This stereotyping has its origins in the colonial era, a time that the German collective memory has all but forgotten.

In the context of BLIND SPOTS EXPOSED, works by Anys Reimann, Zaki Al-Maboren, Theresa Weber and Henrik Langsdorf will be shown as well as works from BLIND SPOTS IN THE STREET, our international poster competition, in which Afro-German artists, designers and illustrators as well as people from the former German colonies and their diaspora residing in Germany were invited to share their perspective and to deal with this topic.

The works of the four winners of the competition were shown for the first time last year in Kassel on large billboards. As part of BLIND SPOTS EXPOSED, another selection of editors picks (works with at least one vote from the jury) from the more than 40 entries from 8 countries will be on view.
Also on display in the exhibition will be posters from the campaign "What We Don't See in Kassel", which in cooperation with the initiative "SIDE BY SIDE - Afro-German and Black People of Northern Hesse" and the "Kirche im Hof", collected experiences of everyday racism as experienced by black people living in Kassel. 

KAZimKUBA

Kassel Architecture Center in the Kulturbahnhof
Rainer-Dierichs-Platz 1
Querhalle (opposite platform 8)
34117 Kassel
Open daily 14-20 h
Monday 7.11.22 closed | free admission

InCooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Hessen e.V. and Blind Spots in the Sun, a panel discussion on colonial history and anti-black racism in Germany took place on September 3, 2021 at the ruruhaus of documenta fifteen in Kassel. A special focus was on the debate about the rehabilitation of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, who was a victim of judicial murder by the German colonial government in Cameroon and whose descendants Princess Marilyn Duala Manga Bell and Jean-Pierre Félix Eyoum sat on the panel with him.

Here is a link to the full length recording

The participants:

Mo Asumang is a film director, television host, best-selling author, actress, singer, artist and film producer. She shows her documentaries in schools and gives lectures on racism and xenophobia. In 2019, she received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her work.

Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell is a social economist and curator. She is the great-granddaughter of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and co-founder of the cultural institution doual'art in Duala, Cameroon. For her services to international cultural exchange, she will receive the official 2021 Medal of Honor of the Federal Republic of Germany from the Goethe-Institut.

Jean-Pierre Félix-Eyoum was born in Cameroon and worked as a special education teacher in Germany since the 1980s. He is a co-founder of Deutschland Postkolonial and is committed to the rehabilitation of his great-uncle Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, who was unjustly executed by the German colonial regime in Cameroon in 1914.

Henrik Langsdorf works internationally in the fields of public art, video installation and design. His video installation "Ville Fantôme/Kinshasa La Belle" was shown at the Congo Biennale in Kinshasa and was part of the light installations at the Weinberg in Kassel.
He is the initiator of Blind Spots in the Sun.

Emilene Wopana Mudimu is a social worker, poetry artist and political activist in the fields of empowerment work with black people and anti-racism training. She has worked for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the DGB and Theater Oberhausen, among others. She also runs "KingzCorner" in Aachen, a socio-cultural center that offers support to young people with an immigrant background.

Moderation:
Aisha Camara works as a freelance moderator and PR consultant in Frankfurt am Main. Her main topics are political education, racism and feminism.