CROSSING BOUNDARIES OF DOUBT
PASSER LA FRONTIÈRE DES DOUTES
ÜBER DIE GRENZE DER ZWEIFEL
With contributions by:
Sylvie Arnaud, Gratien Atindogbe, Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Lady Bantu, Vincent Ndoumbé D, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Justine Gaga, Simone Gilges, Peter Haury, Felix Kama, Astrid S. Klein, Elsa M’bala, François-Stéphane Alima Mbarga, Stone Karim Mohamad, Franklin Aleba Mokala, Serge Ngouffo, Platino, SadraK, Vee, Yam, Hervé Yamguen, AdanGo Zulu, and other future guests
A project since 2013 by the artist Astrid S. Klein, Quartier Flottant, in collaboration with Em’kal Eyongakpa, Artspace Khaliland, Cameroon – SadraK, Collective Hip-Hop Développé, Cameroon – Susanne Weiß, Heidelberger Kunstverein and future partners
Crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net is an online platform and poetic, critical collection that arose through artistic research conducted in Cameroon and Germany in 2013–14, which is now being continued transnationally. As an ongoing transnational project dealing with relations between the non western and western world – the Global South and the Global North, the collection is continually growing through new artistic contributions by artists invited to participate from different countries.
The multilingual platform can be used as a poetic space of agency outside of an institutional context.
Live events accompany the project, such as interventions, performances, concerts, and conversations. They tie into narrative digital space by way of direct physical encounters.
In English, German, French, Pidgin, Bassa, Eton, Cam-Franglais and utopian languages.
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CROSSING BOUNDARIES OF DOUBT is a fragmentary narrative in nine chapters, in which authors from the Global South and North foster a space of agency through their contributions and collaborative exchange and exploration. This space of “narrative” can be used as an extra-institutional platform.
The artists probe their relations with one another through music, texts, poems, and images. They poetically and critically reflect on the past and the present of their societies along with the intertwining of these societies, on their own everyday life realities and the necessity of change, self-organization, and self-determination.
It is a collection and a narrative as artistic space where the question of communality is negotiated.
The artistic undertaking was initiated in 2013 by the artist Astrid S. Klein, who also coordinates the project. It is immersed in an open process as a transnational and transcontinental dialogue between Cameroonian and German participants. As a “work in progress,” the project is presented in various formats above and beyond the website through cooperation with the project partners and other international collaborators.
9 CHAPTERS
Wata Culture / Water No Get Enemy –- Rituals of Violence –- Poubelle de l’Histoire / Trash of History –- Objects of Cohabitation –- Passer la Frontiere des Doutes / Crossing Boundaries of Doubt –- Conversation with Masks –- Mort de Luxe –- Nouvelles Langues / New Languages –- Dancefloor of the New World / Dancefloor to Come
On the rubbish heaps of violent colonial histories, cultural producers from the South and North talk about their ideas and their relationships to one another. They speak of the currents of water, of being without memory, of the rubbish of history; they talk to masks and about scars, about rituals of violence, about the circulation of people and goods, about objects of cohabitation and about “Mort de Luxe,” or death by luxury.
Against the dark foundation of words, the heavy and precarious things have been sinking, things that are secret, unutterable. In moving beyond this, people intersect. In everyday strategies of survival, where the structural violence of societies resides, the yearning for the “promised lands” shines through.
Aware of their differences, the artists speak of appropriation and self-determination. They express doubt as to whether they can change and act. In which way, and on which paths, can boundaries and barriers, the inscriptions of ideologies of superiority and exploitation, be overcome?
How are we impacted by the advancing capitalization of contemporary societies and the daily negotiation and evaluation of our personal relationships? Using and being used—societies that celebrate objects.
In their poetic explorations, the authors query the potentialities of communality, pursuing their individual, social, economic, and geopolitical meanings and conditions. They start conceptualizing an artistic space of agency with their narratives and become active there. Polyphony of Geography, of Past and Present. Is it possible to be both pragmatic and utopian? Which identities do we want to live? How can we expand the imaginary beyond these boundaries of doubt? As flowing ones?
Evident in this project is the emergent desire to invent other languages between the languages and known words, creolized, in gestures, with text appeal.
For a moment, the utopian Dancefloor of the New World becomes a promising future site eluding fixed geographical orientation. A place of non-hierarchical, dancing movement, where one’s counterpart transforms the gestures. Movements that simultaneously give rise to manifold meanings and shifts in meaning, that are sensually shared and generate energy.
(Astrid S. Klein, 2014)
Download project description in English and German as PDF-File:
Crossing_Boundaries_of_Doubt_Info_©Astrid_S._Klein_Download
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FUNDING – PARTNERS + SPONSORS:
“CROSSING BOUNDARIES OF DOUBT” – “Hinter dem Wasser”
The website and artistic dialogue were funded by Aktion Afrika/Auswärtiges Amt.
Concept and realization by Astrid S. Klein in cooperation with Susanne Weiß/Heidelberger Kunstverein e.V. and the partners Em’kal Eyongakpa /Artspace Khaliland, Yaoundé and SadraK/Collective Hip-Hop Développé, Douala, Cameroon
With additional contributions from the following projects:
Entangled Traces – Verflochtene Spuren – Traces tressées
The artistic research conducted in Cameroon in 2013 was funded by the Goethe-Institut Yaoundé
Concept and realization by Astrid S. Klein, coordinated by Justine Gaga in Cameroon, with the partners Em’kal Eyongakpa /Artspace Khaliland, Yaoundé and SadraK/Collective Hip-Hop Développé, Douala, Cameroon
Artistic research in Cameroon on the traces of German colonial history and the interlinked stories and biographies between Cameroon and Germany. With Justine Gaga, Elsa M’bala, Franklin Aleba Mokala, Vincent Ndoumbé D, Serge Nguelou Ngouffo and Astrid S. Klein
Über die Grenze der Zweifel – Passer la frontiere des doutes
Kindly supported by the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg, Institut für Auslandbeziehungen, ifa e.V., Württembergischer Kunstverein e.V, and Theater Rampe.
Performances, events, and research conducted with artists from Cameroon and Germany in Stuttgart, Germany, from September 1 to 25, 2013.
Concept and realization by Astrid S. Klein, in cooperation with Susanne Weiß/Heidelberger Kunstverein e.V. and the partners Württembergischer Kunstverein e.V, Em’kal Eyongakpa/Artspace Khaliland, Yaoundé and SadraK/Collective Hip-Hop Développé, Douala, Cameroon
Download project description in English and German as PDF-File:
Crossing_Boundaries_of_Doubt_Info_©Astrid_S._Klein_Download
(English by Dawn Michelle d’Atri)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special Thanks/Grand Merci to the contributors:
Sylvie Arnaud, Lady B, Vincent Ndoumbé D, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Justine Gaga, Simone Gilges, Peter Haury, Felix Kama, Elsa M’bala, François-Stéphane Alima Mbarga, Stone Karim Mohamad, Franklin Aleba Mokala, Serge Ngouffo, Platino, SadraK, Yam, Hervé Yamguen, AdanGo Zulu
Many thanks to the translators:
Dawn Michelle d’Atri, Simon Pleasance, Ronald Voullié, Béatrice Zuccarello
Many thanks to all supporting people :
Susanne Weiss, Elke aus dem Moore, Iris Lenz, Nina Hülsmeier, Joachim Uhlmann, Elke Tiedt, Dr. Irene Bark, Raphael Mouchangou, Soro Solo, Iris Dressler, Hans Christ, Silke Albrecht, Prof. Dr. Inès de Castro, Martin Otto-Hörbrand, Katrin Simon, Gabriele Brand Yakan, Dr. Thomas Schnabel, KD Busch, Birgit Klein, Stefanie Kleinsorge, Nina Spang, Sonja Hempel, Lisa Berndt, Sabina Husicic, Laura Bernhardt, Konrad Krammer, Club Bergamo, Moritz Finkbeiner, Marie Bues, Martina Grohmann, Thomas Pfisterer, Karin Hinterleitner, Siegfried Kalnbach, Andor Schwarz und Familie, Sylvain Noah, Biotop 3000, Gisela Zimmermann, Laura Bernhardt, Shamack, David Nundji, Michael Meister, Rasmus Nordholt, Pit Schultz, Werner Nötzel, Thilo Kuhn, Ben, Peter Haury, Platino, Yam
The extra-institutional project partners in Cameroon were important counterparts on the Cameroonian end of the project: KHaL!LAND as a self-organized, transnational art space founded by Em’kal Eyongakpa, KHaL!SHRINE and the residents, Sadrak with his network, and the musicians of the collective Hip-Hop Développé (HHD). Also participating and supporting were vieux père Vincent Ndoumbé D, David Noundji, and Justine Gaga—in the spirit of Art Bakery by the artist Goddy Leye—and Hervé Yamguen, with his transformative, social, artistic practice and his new art project positioned between village and city, along with all of the cultural producers in Cameroon who inspired us and assisted us with practical matters on site.
The Goethe-Institut Cameroon in Yaoundé with Irene Bark and her colleagues have significantly supported the work, thus simplifying many things, as well as the German Embassy in Yaoundé.
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant (Astrid S. Klein)
©2013_CrossingBoundariesOfDoubt/Astrid_S._Klein
