koloniale grüsse aus samoa (colonial greetings from samoa)
A century after Wilhelm Solf’s governance of the Samoan islands, in collaboration with Nele Solf, we retraced the colonial history of Samoa. Our research in 2019 involved engaging with historians, scientists, and local communities both in Samoa and within the Samoan diaspora in Auckland, New Zealand.At the neumarkt theatre in Zurich, the journey took shape in a lecture performance with a question of how taxes are declared through colonial heritage.
“the global north conquered and plundered during its colonial heyday, and still holds those countries hostage for debt, but it is also now depriving people of life’s necessities through its own addiction to high-carbon luxury.” -carola rackete, 2019.
““anyone who has not lived for years among the natives, whose heart does not beat for them, and who does not feel a sense of charity for people who think and feel differently, will never understand the joy with which a called colonizer sets to work.” ”
research and development in Samoa and Zürich: Nele Solf and Madhumita Nandi
video and sound in Samoa: Madhumita Nandi
installation team in: Nele Solf, Friederike Helmes, Dorothea Mildenberger, Madhumita Nandi, Aline Stäheli, Sabrina tannen
in collaboration with zürcher hochschule der künste
sponsors: school of commons, stiftung anne-marie schindler