Lebohang Kganye: Shall You Return Everything, but the Burden
Installation image, Shall You Return Everything, but the Burden.
Curated by Lucia Halder
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany
May 12 - October 5, 2023
Who owns the documents and images in an archive? Who owns the objects in a museum and what should be done with them? Such questions make the ethnological museum in particular one of the most controversial spaces of our time. And this the very space the South African artist Lebohang Kganye addresses in her work. At the invitation of the International Photoscene Cologne, the South African artist has worked with the holdings of the RJM Photographic Collection. The starting point of Lebohang Kganye's work are images by the German painter and photographer Marie Pauline Thorbecke, who in 1911-1913 undertook an expedition to Cameroon with her husband Franz Thorbecke on behalf of the German Colonial Society. 110 years later, Kganye traverses their tracks through the country, interweaving memories, impressions, and narratives from a female perspective. The request "Shall you Return Everything, but the Burden" refers to the efficacy of colonial past in the present. Through her work, Lebohang Kganye establishes new contexts – including a fictional gesture of restitution. By creatively exploring the boundaries of photography and archive, Kganye develops her own narrative and opens the colonial narrative to new interpretations. In this approach, the archive can move from being a mere repository of the past to a resource for the future. The exhibition is part of the 'Artist meets Archive' Residency Program of the International Photoscene Cologne: https://www.photoszene.de/en/festival/photoszene-specials/ama/.
