Sophiensaele Berlin, Nationaltheater Mannheim. 2024.
Photo by Mayra Wallraff
“i will be African even if you want me to be German, and I will be German even if my blackness doesn’t suit you. I will go yet another step further, to the farthest side, where my sisters are – where my brothers stand, where our FREEDOM begins” – (from “borderless and brazen – a poem against the German ‘u-not-y’ by” May Ayim)
The installation Unauthorized and Shameless examines German history from a Black perspective: we take a look at the post-war period and then move forward together to the beginnings of the recent Black movement. To this end, we shed light on the biographies of those born in the post-war years as children of Black US soldiers and white German mothers.
We met and interviewed wonderful people of this generation, who speak about growing up, their struggles and the realities of Afro-German life. Their stories are accompanied and shaped by exclusion and by the institutional racism of the Federal Republic of Germany. But they are also, and above all, stories of resistance and community-building.
Simone Dede Ayivi & Kompliz*innen delve into the archives for Unauthorized and Unverschämt, shedding light on the racism and sexism of the Federal Republic of Germany – which is also responsible for families being separated and children being taken away from their mothers, adopted into the US or placed in care homes. They are conducting research in Mannheim, Frankfurt and Berlin into society’s treatment of the so-called ‘occupation children’ and searching for traces left in official records. For in order to understand current debates on identity and racism within and outside Black communities in Germany, we must also know this part of our history.
Afronautin
Vom Standpunkt Einer Erleichterung
Credits:
Konzept, Text: Simone Dede Ayivi
Bühne: Mirjam Pleines
Video: Jones Seitz
Komposition, Sound: Johannes Birlinger
Licht: Frieder Miller
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit: Sarah Rosenau
Projektmitarbeit: Charlotte Rosengarth
Ausstattungsassistenz: Luca Plaumann
Produktionsleitung: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Technische Leitung: Gefährliche Arbeit
Eine Produktion von Simone Dede Ayivi & Kompliz*innen in Koproduktion mit Sophiensæle und dem Stadtensemble des Nationaltheaters Mannheim. Gefördert durch die Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt und den Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR.