Mimbeng 1914
part II Mimbeng 1914: A History of Lateness
film 14'40
Mimbeng 1914 (2009-2014) recollects the lost events of World War I in North Gabon, in the jungle district of the artist's family home. The footage mixes sounds from the forests with grey parrots speaking in German100 years after the conflict in 2014 from the remnant memories of the war and colonial German occupation in the early 20th century. Inside the forests old colonial ghosts re-enact literature performances by Alderbert von Chamisso, the first director of the botanical garden (1830), who is transformed as Camissonae in the local Fang language as a mythical forest demon stealing people's eyes. The artist's grandmother and father recollect the times of the ghost conversations inside the forest plantations with the parrots sitting on top of the ruinations and mass graves of murdered soldiers from the German and French armies.
The artist makes a critical research on the effects of the domestication of wildlife by German colonies connecting the northern regions of Gabon and southern regions of Cameroon (1883-1913). Focusing on the voices of the perpetrators rather than that of the subject.
The artist connects the story of the Carib expedition of Friedrich W. A. von Humboldt whom wrote Kosmos (1799), that included a study of a 40 word dictionary of the Mayporé tribe culture & language massacred by Carib Indians but whose language had been transmitted to local rainforests parrots domesticated by their owners. The story navigates a surreal and intimate experience between imagination and trauma to question the validation of botanical sciences and our position on ephemeral memories.
The artist connects the story of the Carib expedition of Friedrich W. A. von Humboldt whom wrote Kosmos (1799), that included a study of a 40 word dictionary of the Mayporé tribe culture & language massacred by Carib Indians but whose language had been transmitted to local rainforests parrots domesticated by their owners. The story navigates a surreal and intimate experience between imagination and trauma to question the validation of botanical sciences and our position on ephemeral memories.