Brigitta Kuster

Germany Trait D'Union Cameroon

Germany trait d’union Cameroon is a documentary/experimental video, installation and research project on colonial history/continuity, images of memory and forms of forgetting. The point of departure is an exemplary confrontation that searches for the meaning in contemporary Cameroon of the (supposedly) long-forgotten history of the German colonial project: the project conveys the abduction, torture and murder of “chef superieur” Bisselé Akaba in Balamba (Yambassa region,Cameroon), during the 1892 war with the whites. Bisselé Akaba is the great-grandfather of Moïse Merlin Mabouna, who has lived in Germany since 2001.

Germany trait d’union Cameroon juxtaposed different approaches to writing history, remembering/forgetting, and investigated how they construct meaning. The project was less concerned with the reconstruction of an objective or complete historical truth. Instead it explored fragments and connections between Germany and Cameroon in the transmission and reappraisal of the colonial history and to set this in motion. Investigating the events of 1892 was understood as a contemporary approach to knowledge production in which institutions, imaginary representations and memory images guide of the film narratives.
Brigitta Kuster

As part of her fellowship/residency, Brigitta Kuster was invited to present her work in the seminar Globalization in Art and Art History (Lecturer: Jürgen Tabor), held in the 2008/09 winter semester at the Department of Art History, University of Innsbruck.