Sandra Monterroso / Kristina Leko – Talk

The discussions concerning Humboldt Forum in recent years have ignited long overdue debates about the colonial past of Germany and Europe. In conversation with the artists Kristina Leko and Sandra Monterroso, the curator of the exhibition „This Might Be A Place for Humming Birds,” Çağla Ilk, will discuss how to deal with colonial heritage and the challenges of post-colonial memory culture.

Since the 1990s, Sandra Monterroso’s work has focussed on the female body and female subjectivity, cross-generational at times, in both the public and private sphere. In her works, which can also be seen in the exhibition „This Might Be A Place for Humming Birds,” she explores the complexity of coloniality, as well as possibilities of transformation and healing, based on her partly indigenous and partly non-indigenous heritage.

Kristina Leko’s work focuses on socially related critical participatory artistic projects, as well as projects in public space. Since 2013, Leko has been teaching at the University of the Arts Berlin, at the Institute for Art in Context with a focus on art in public and social space. Since 2018, Leko has also been leading a cooperation project with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, that involves the artists Santiago Calderón (COL), Helga Elsner Torres (PER), Beatriz Rodríguez (MX), Natalia Rodríguez Ramírez (COL), Pablo Santacana López (ESP), Aliza Yanes (PER), Daniela Zambrano Almidón (PER) working on interventions for the Humboldt Forum.

In the context of their work and teaching practice, Leko and Monterroso will talk about artistic methods and possibilities for dealing with colonialism and coming to terms with its consequences.
The event is taking place in the pop-up bar “Las Golondrinas” by artist Maya Saravia.

The exhibition “This Might Be A Place For Hummingbirds,” curated by Çağla Ilk and Antje Weitzel, which is on show 16 November 2019 – 5 February 2020 at Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin-Neukölln, is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe / Programme Open-Sector Funding, and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa).