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Artist Nicola Brandt © Steidl Verlag.
Nicola Brandt spent her youth in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek. It was a life during apartheid, in a world, we as Europeans, can hardly imagine, especially if one has never travelled to this region of the world.
The daughter of a German father and a mother from South-Africa, she now devotes herself artistically and photographically to Namibia’s colonial heritage. Her work deals with the wounds and consequences of the German colonial era, which Nicola Brandt still sees and feels in Namibia today. This may be unknown to many Germans, or rather a case for the history books – but in Namibia, the trauma of German colonial rule is a current issue.
“Those years certainly remain in me and have shaped my thinking from that period onwards.”
– Nicola Brandt
“The Distance Within” – Namibia and the German colonial legacy
Nicola Brandt’s comprehensive work “The Distance Within” has now been published by Steidl Verlag in Göttingen. Some time ago, the project also took Nicola Brandt to Hamburg, where she was able to conduct her research at the MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum. Her visit to the archives was also very productive, as the artist was able to view and study texts and historical photographs, some of which she later incorporated into her comprehensive book. The work documents her ten years of research on the subject and is enriched with documents, photographs, and texts from private and public archives.
Non-landscapes vs. postcard motifs
The photography and motifs move away from the familiar clichéd impressions and postcard romanticism that Namibia likes to present to tourists as a so-called land of longing. She calls her landscapes “non-landscapes.” The artist has embarked on long journeys through the desert and bushveld, searching for traces of Namibia’s past. Occasionally accompanied by two Herero women, Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari and Katuvangua Maendo, who have their own views on the country, especially when it comes to the history of the Nama and Herero people, and the German atrocities committed against their ancestors.
“So, you know, it is quite sad to see how many decades later these wounds run incredibly deep.”
– Nicola Brandt
Podcast episode with Nicola Brandt
Here is the first episode of my conversations with the artist Nicola Brandt. We talk about her youth in Namibia, her artistic approach, her working methods, and how she traveled thousands of kilometers in search of marks, scars, and traces on the landscape.
A brief summary
This is by no means the end of the story. The book is more than just committed documentary photography. The genocide committed by German troops (1904-1908) against the Nama and Herero peoples still casts a shadow over relations between Namibia and Germany today. Economic cooperation between Germany and Namibia will be expanded in the future. And this may once again raise the question of reparations and compensation. This topic will continue to occupy the discussion in Germany in the future.
Outlook – and what’s next
A second episode will follow soon. We had a long conversation, delving deeper into the subject as the artist talked about her personal life and her ancestors.
So it’s worth staying tuned. And I’d be delighted if you would rate the episodes on Apple Podcasts. That gives me more leeway to produce further episodes for the Hamburg Arts Kunst Podcast.
Here is the link to Steidl Verlag
Steidl Verlag “The distance within” Nicola Brandt
Here is the link to Nicola Brandt’s website
Comments by Kay Dethlefs