Searching for colonial traces: Artist talk with Kavena Hambira

Discussion / Sunday, April 19, 2026 / 3 p.m. / Schiffswelten / €10, reduced €5, free for children and young people up to and including 18 years of age. 

For the special exhibition “Land gewinnen” (Gaining Land), a video installation has been created in collaboration with Namibian artist Kavena Hambira that deals with the handling of colonial collections. As part of an artist talk, the renowned artist and filmmaker will be joining the museum live on April 19 at 3 p.m.

The DSM is looking at colonial history collections from three angles: DSM curators will show how objects and archival materials are part of the special exhibition. Collection staff member Romy Köhler will talk about how archival materials and objects from colonial contexts are handled from the perspective of collection history and provenance research. This is followed by a screening of Kavena Hambira's video work. Finally, participants learn from the artist himself how he worked with the archival documents.

Since January of this year, the newly established “Documentation and Provenance” department has been systematically reviewing the holdings with regard to context-sensitive provenance and collection histories. Specifically, it will be shown how naval holdings from German colonial contexts are subjected to critical, and in view of colonial revisionist appropriations, also counterfactual examination.

The focus is on narratives associated with collection objects such as “travel souvenirs,” private photo albums with handwritten comments, and award certificates for colonial commemorative coins. These are reconstructed in their specific colonial contexts and colonial revisionist narratives are deconstructed.

Kavena Hambira has already produced videos on similar topics for numerous other German universities. The special exhibition “Gaining Land – The German Atlantic Expedition from 1925 to 1927” will be on display until May 3, 2026. In addition to the METEOR expedition 100 years ago and its research, the exhibition critically examines the political and colonial interrelationships of the METEOR-expedition, also incorporating perspectives from Namibia.

The video installation was created with the kind support of the DSM Friends Association. The event will be offered in two languages (German/English) and in a hybrid format.