GROUND 0101 (The Fall Issue)

Ismael Ogando. My later impression
of Xenopolis, which
is quite a strong title/statement
for an exhibition in the
context of the current zeitgeist
made me wonder was
is the core concept behind
the development of this idea/
exhibition.
Simon Njami. My theory, If
one can call it theory, which
is more of a feeling than a
theory; is that everyone is a
stranger in a city, and that,
because of my upbringing,
my personal story I always
felt a stranger but not like villagers
would complain. I was
one in Switzerland, I never
felt Swiss even if I’m holding
a Swiss passport. My Family
is from Cameroon, but I never
really felt Cameroonian,
I’ve never lived there then
I’ve been the rest of my life in
Paris but don’t feel French, I
feel Parisian.
If you look at the questions of
nationalism, identity etcetera,
I always thought that people
were mistaken, they think
they belong to something
and that something belongs
to them, I wanted to demonstrate
it is like it is. I curated
the group show so to develop
an idea, a bit like a follow up
with my previous exhibition
Wir Sind Alle Berliner, even
if that show was focusing on
topics of colonial issues, that
one was more about individuals
and personal positions.
Then so I asked strangers to
tell me about their Berlin and
so to take on the hypothesis
that a city does not belong to
the state or whatever, it belongs
to the people who is
making it which in my opinion
makes the beauty of big
cities. For instance, if one go
to New York, there no one will
claim to be American, they
claim to be Newyorkers because
they don’t like America,
as if New York city was a
state on its own. I think any
city is a state on its own, it
creates its own citizens. In
the context of Nation and
Borders, etcetera. I wanted
to remind that whenever
people determine they have
an identity they are mistaking
the term identity. Identity
is not nationality or holding
two passports, a passport
does not make my identity,
what makes my identity is my
life and the different layers in
which I’ve been forging who
I am now. That is basically
what the show is trying to remark
or trying to tell people.
IO. Now that you mention
New York, I got myself at
first there this idea of a multicultural
city, the city would
amaze me by just going into
the subway to face so many
shades of skin colours, languages
and nationalities. but
then, I traced a pattern in the
city’s architecture on the way
I was growing up, in the subway
lines for instance, depending
on how you move
and where you ride to, the
space will be coloured in gradients,
from light shades of
skin to darker shades and
vice versa.