Isabel Raabe – Uriel Orlow

Person: Isabel Raabe

Ré-imaginer le passé | Kindl, Berlin

This group exhibition developed in Dakar offers a fresh perspective on the past and creates spaces for alternative forms of knowledge and knowledge transfer. In their installations, photographs and objects, participating artists explore how a decolonial perspective can shape our vision of the future.
Ré-imaginer le passé was first showcased at Musée Theodore Monod in Dakar in 2023. It is part of the TALKING OBJECTS LAB – a series of exhibitions, artist residencies and events held in Senegal, Kenya, Germany and other countries since 2020.

Curated by Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, Isabel Raabe, Ibou C. Diop and Malick Ndiaye.

With works by Elsa M’Bala, Fatou Kandé Senghor, Caroline Gueye, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Ibrahima Thiam, Viyé Diba, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy, baobab création, C& Center of Unfinished Business

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25 Nov ’23 – 8 Jan ’24

Re-Imagining the Past | Musée Théodore Monod, Dakar

Reimagining the Past departs from the imaginary as a means of rethinking current realities. The project proposes a future from a precolonial perspective to open our eyes to a polyperspective narratives and conceptual approaches. Artists and researchers from the African continent, the diaspora and Europe, will collaborate and theorise together in “LABoratoires”, exploring the poetic power of artistic practice and imagination.

“Ré-imaginer le passé” is both a laboratory and exhibition project. The German-Senegalese curatorial team, comprised of El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, Isabel Raabe and Ibou C. Diop, will host labs in Dakar and in digital space. The results will culminate in exhibitions at the Musée Théodore Monod in Dakar and the KINDL Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin.

With works by Nikita Dhawan, Viyé Diba, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy, Elsa M’Bala, Ibrahima Thiam, Caroline Gueye, Alibeta, Fatou Kandé Senghor and María do Mar Castro Varela.

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15 Sep ’22

Unexpected lessons #2: Decolonizing Nature | Goethe Institute, Reykjavic

Screening of Theatrum Botanicum Trilogy by Uriel Orlow, including the films Imbizo Ka Mafavuke (2017, 28min), Muthi (2016-2017, 17min) and The crown against Mafavuke (2016, 18min), as part of a film programme that expands on the topics of the journey of seeds between the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Lebanon, patent battles over traditional plant medicine in South Africa and the traces of colonial ambitions of explorers in the Natural History Museum Berlin. In the context of the three-day performative conference UNEXPECTED LESSONS #2, part of the festival Goethe Morph* Iceland at Nordic House in Reykjavik, September 13th – 15th, 2022.
Just like its predecessor event in Berlin and Nairobi, UNEXPECTED LESSONS #2 is dedicated to the theme of decolonization. This time we put a focus on nature, from different perspectives. What makes nature the other? What role does the decoupling of nature and culture play in this? Is the culture/nature dichotomy tenable at all? And how can we decolonize our view of the world and think nature differently?

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