Brave New Worlds
Exhibition July 9th, 10th & 11th, 2010
Theater der Welt, Essen
In 2010 the Chinese government founded a development fund for Africa, the total sum of which was more than nearly half again of Germany's entire global development budget. Brave New Worlds probes the migration process of the money, goods and people connected to it. Five artists from Kinshasa and five of their counterparts from Guangzhou visit each other. They are architects, theatre-makers, painters, writers or critics and they are looking for traces of their own culture in the other's country through stories, objects, experiences. The classic western criteria of centre and periphery, of east/west or north/south are nul and void. What chance does this new-orientation of Africa offer? Is the Chinese development help simply old-fashioned colonisation in modern clothes? And how does this affect us Europeans? Following their excursions, the artists meet up in Mülheim and invite us along. They will show their work and a documentary about the journeys, there will be the opportunity to find out more about the topic in one-to-one conversations, lectures and discussions. Will anything remain of the cliches about the red superpower and the poor, black continent?
With: Alain Polo, Chen Shuyu, Chi Peng, Freddy Tsimba, Kiripi Katembo, Marie Louise Bibish Mumbu, Pak Chuen Sheung, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Zhao Chuan, Jiang Jun
Artistic coordination: Els Silvrants, Ula Sickle, Paul Kerstens, Chen Shuyu / Video documentation: Adrienne Altenhaus
Production: Institute for Provocation (Beijing-Antwerp), KVS, Theater der Welt 2010 / Suppported by: Arthub Asia / Prince Klaus Fund
