Laura Horelli (Ed.): Changes in Direction

Archive Books, 2021, Softcover, 280 pages, 23 × 16 cm

Featuring Nadia Abraham, Michael Alfons, Abisai Amunyela, Jimmy Amupala, Joe Ashipala, Jochen Becker, Kristin Capp, Ginga Eichler, Wolfgang Eife, Naango Elago, Jihan El-Tahri, Hilwananye Henock, Mwalengwa Hillebrecht, Actofel Ilovu, Uwe Jaenicke, Maria Kaakunga, Isabel Katjavivi, Peter Katjavivi, Cleophas Kaffo, Felix Kaluwapa, Lavinia Kapewasha, Patrick Keaveney, Marjatta Lahti, Thomas Lendrich, Nicky Marais, Antonia Majaca, Reinhold Mupupa, Alfeus Mvula, Silas Nangolo, Ellen Ndeshi Namhila, Tshoombe Ndadi, Karen Nordentoft, Kati Peltola, Pekka Peltola, Anna Rastas, Papa Shikongeni, Tarah Shinavene, Ndeenda Shivute, Hans-Georg Schleicher, Ilona Schleicher, Simon Tjimbawe, Jean-Claude Tjitamunisa, Simeon Uulenga.

Changes in Direction – a Journal provides multivocal and transnational African-European statements to current decoloniality debates from different perspectives. The Finnish-German artist Laura Horelli engages with the traumatic and complex histories of colonialism and international solidarity between East Germany, Finland and Namibia, staging micro-historical interventions in public spaces. Her films transform the archive into a space – and publication – of reflective engagement.

The artist’s compilation of research, interviews and discussions in this bilingual German-English volume are enriched by contributions by the Namibian performance artist Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, German curator-theorist Doreen Mende and the Finnish writer Olli Löytty. Initially an exhibition project and film screenings shown in Berlin, Freiburg i. Br., Malmö, Helsinki and Windhoek, Horelli and the curator Heidi Brunnschweiler put together a volume that celebrates and critically reflects on art as a process.