The Humboldt Forum will be set in motion on 11 June. The fourth and final part of the “Moving the Forum” project will be presented under the title “Interacting” at various locations inside and outside the cultural institution. In this context, the Humboldt Lab will also become a dance floor with the performance “Decolonisation and memory of living masks” by choreographer Ahmed Soura.

Baroque sounds at the site of the historic Stadtschloss: what sounds like the prelude to a royal soirée actually has a completely different reason. Mixed with modern sounds, historical fragments will be heard as accompanying music when members of “The Dreamers”, a group of young dancers from Spandau, perform a critically conceived choreography by the dancer and artist Ahmed Soura. They do not dance on light feet, but literally on the floor of the exhibition. During a rehearsal, the dancers move – partly crawling – through the exhibition space, which itself is also set in motion. Instead of lightness, the choreography is carried by emotion – just like the background music that Soura has chosen. The fact that the music, especially composed by musician and composer Johannes Lauer for the performance, also features baroque elements is an important detail for Soura, who was born in Burkina Faso: “This palace was built at the time when baroque music was an expression of sophistication – while elsewhere raw colonialism was raging.”

At the centre of Soura’s performance lies the motif of the mask. He deliberately chose this when addressing the theme of colonialism and decolonisation, which is the central focus of his performance at this particular sight – the center of power in Germany’s Kaiserreich. Surprisingly, however, he does not refer to museum objects alone, which are currently the focus of lively restitution debates, as, for instance, on the Benin Bronzes. Rather, he argues, we are all ourselves “living masks” – masks that move through the world, especially in an age of globalisation and migration, taking our attitudes and preconceptions with us. At the same time, he points to the ability of people to open up, change and adapt. “To decolonise,” he summarises, “is to understand that we ourselves are masks.”

For Soura, coming into conversation about this and taking off the masks through movement represents an imperative. To have his choreography danced at the Humboldt Forum is an opportunity to enter into a public debate about what collective answers can be given to the question of honesty. The audience should be inspired by his performance to think about historical and current social masquerades and to look for answers on how to be honest – especially on the topic of colonialism.

The young dancers from Spandau, whom Soura was able to win over for his project, also see a close connection to the theme of masks for themselves – while at the same time updating it against the backdrop of their own realities: “Our generation,” says one of them, “hides behind the masks of the social media world. It oppresses you and you sometimes don’t even know who you are. Do I look good enough to go out today?” The movement of dancing, on the other hand, she sums up, “pushes my powerlessness out of me.” In a moving moment of the choreography, the dancers stare at exhibits. Vis-à-vis, the tension between the historical and the contemporary masks – which have to deal with the ghosts of the past and the present – appears.

More Information on the Website of the Humboldt Forum