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Eric Otieno Sumba reviews Mahmood Mamdani's Slow Poison in Berlin Review: "In Slow Poison, the Columbia University Professor and father of New York City’s incumbent mayor, Zohran Mamdani—makes a formidable attempt to take two African dictators seriously enough to sustain a dense and comprehensive engagement with them. There is nothing defensible about African dictators, but they cannot be understood if they remain an archetype. They, too, need to be understood in their own contexts, but not on their own terms. A dictator rarely emerges alone and, more importantly, rarely falls alone. Carl Schmitt’s dictum, “Tell me who your enemy is and I’ll tell you who you are,” is useful in tracing Mamdani’s reconstruction of the inner political logic of two defining figures in Uganda’s history.

The zine “SPAZIO GRIOT Artist Residency-On the Second Congress of Black Writers and Artists #1” revisits an important historical and cultural event held in Rome in 1959. Through its pages, the congress echoes to the present time, its legacies unfolding in conversations, essays and artistic positions in the contemporary art field. Edited by Johanne Affricot and Eric Otieno Sumba, contributors include curator and researcher Chris Cyrille-Isaac, and the inaugural 2024 cohort of artists in residence: Brianda Carreras, Immaculate Ruému, and Damiano Tata. https://otienos.com/projects/7284329

For the Dutch entry for the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, Dries Verhoeven presents The Fortress. In collaboration with curator Rieke Vos, Verhoeven brings performance art to the Dutch Pavilion and makes the building itself part of the work through an architectural installation. The accompanying publication contains texts by Verhoeven and Vos, alongside contributions by Bas Heijne, Maurits de Bruijn, and Eric Otieno Sumba. Images by Willem Popelier. Print only. https://www.japsambooks.nl/products/the-fortress

1983, an einem kalten Wintertag in New York, stellt der US-amerikanische Künstler David Hammons einen improvisierten Straßenstand auf, breitet sorgfältig geformte Schneebälle in unterschiedlichen Größen auf einer Decke aus und bietet sie zum Verkauf an. Das scheinbar absurde Angebot eines flüchtigen, wertlosen Materials mitten im urbanen Alltag wird unter dem Titel Bliz-aard Ball Sale zu einer der prägnantesten Performances der amerikanischen Konzeptkunst. Der Verkauf von Schneebällen wird zur subtilen Parodie der ökonomischen und kulturellen Wertschöpfung. Der Film The Melt Goes On Forever (2023) von Judd Tully und Harold Crooks zeichnet die Karriere des afroamerikanischen Künstlers David Hammons nach. Die Künstlerbiografie wird am 06.03.2026 im englischen Original im Bremer Weserburg Museum gezeigt mit anschließendem Gespräch zwischen der Künstlerin Anys Reimann und dem Publizisten Eric Otieno Sumba.

Monira Al Qadiri’s work explores humans’ ambivalent and alienated connection to the natural world, often viewing it through the lens of petro-culture. At times, the artist highlights oil’s role in reshaping human culture and the environment; at others, she enlarges the microscopic chemical structures and organisms that either sustain life on Earth or enable its industrialized destruction. In her current show at the Berlinische Galerie, Al Qadiri navigates oil’s entangled relationship with the sea, highlighting the toxic impact of oil tankers on the ocean and retracing the surprising symbolic role played by a sea snail within the history of the industry. Eric Otieno Sumba visited the exhibition and found himself drifting in threatening waters, somewhere between the romantic ocean of the seafaring past and the modern, infrastructural sea. https://www.textezurkunst.de/en/articles/eric-otieno-sumba-monira-al-quadiri-all-her-ships/

It is easy to project a very particular kind of millennial nostalgia onto both of Liz Johnson Arthur's new books. The first, I Will Keep You in Good Company, offers a rare glimpse into the photographers workbook or scrapbook, an almost sacrosanct repository to many artists that hosts anything from an (irregular) diary, mementos, and fragments of thought and information, to assorted collages featuring source material from various magazines. Named for the now iconic queer club night, the second book PDA, by contrast evokes the era when nobody in the club had a camera phone with a mega-pixel count worth writing home about. Come Saturday morning, revelers eagerly awaited Friday night's photos, uploaded by the dozen to a public (sic!) album on the club's facebook page. Not all were flattering, but legendary from today’s era of the hypercurated image.
Review of two of Liz Johnson Arturs latest books (print only) https://camera-austria.at/zeitschrift/172-2025/

Villa Borghese is a sprawling park in Rome’s center, the legacy of a noble family given over to the public in 1903. Galleria Borghese is situated within these grounds, its building and collection initiated in the early seventeenth century by Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese, who exploited his papal connections to amass power and wealth. Today, the museum displays this centuries-old collection, which includes many of the most celebrated artworks from Italian history, in the cardinal’s decadently designed baroque rooms.
In recent years, the museum has staged temporary special exhibitions with big, overwhelmingly European names from modern and contemporary art, including Picasso, Lucio Fontana, Damien Hirst, and Louise Bourgeois. This summer, Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu mounted an exhibition that was aptly billed as a site-specific intervention. Mutu’s work occupied the lavish galleries, staging imposing and generative juxtapositions with its surrounding Roman busts and trompe l’oeil frescos. Writer Eric Otieno Sumba reviews the exhibition here, revealing how Mutu worked with and against the institution to assert figures, culture, and histories otherwise absent from this place. https://www.thepublicreview.org/read/spiritus-sancti-eric-otieno-sumba-wangechi-mutu-galleria-borghese Wangechi Mutu: Black Soil Poems, installation view, Galleria Borghese, 2025

Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt revived a groundbreaking Uzbek film festival, Eric Otieno Sumba and Can Sungu reflect on how its Cold War–era screenings bridged global cinema and fostered south-south solidarities. Image: Hanna Wiedemann / HKW https://www.frieze.com/article/eric-otieno-sumba-can-sungu-253

There can be no coming to terms with the calamity of Koyo Kouoh’s untimely passing mere days before she was set to announce her plans for the 2026 Venice Biennale. Not yet. Among the many art communities Kouoh was part of, there is the feeling that a colleague, mentor, and friend was snatched away in her prime – like the two ancestors, Bisi Silva and Okwui Enwezor, who preceded her. Somewhere under the grief, fond memories and deep gratitude are slowly emerging, but for now, the pain lingers. Her last exhibition, “In Minor Keys,” opens in May 2026 in Venice, now be delivered across the finish line by her curatorial team, an edifying conclusion to the great career of a woman whose vision for contemporary art and commitment to African artists was undeniable. “I am certain that, at 54, my work is done,” she told Emeka Okereke in 2022. We must take her at her word. https://www.textezurkunst.de/en/articles/eric-otieno-sumba-obituary-for-koyo-kkouoh/

Marie Nejar died last month at the age of 95. As far as the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD) is aware, she was the last Black survivor of Nazi Germany. Obituary for the London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/june/marie-nejar-1930-2025

O-Ton für Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio am Rande einer Podiumsdiskussion der C/O Berlin und der Berliner Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung am 23. April 2024 https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/post-kolonialer-diskurs-welche-rolle-spielt-selbstpraesentation-100.html
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Soundbite for Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio at the sidelines of a panel discussion hosted by c/o Berlin and the Berliner Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung on 23rd April 2024

Anlässlich der Ausstellungen A World in Common und Silvia Rosi . Protektorat veranstalten C/O Berlin und die Berliner Landeszentrale für politische Bildung eine gemeinsame Discussion. Es geht darum, sich bei der Auseinandersetzung mit Afrikas Geschichte(n) von westlich geprägten Darstellungen zu lösen und den Blick auf alternative Geschichtserzählungen, also Gegennarrative von Künstler:innen aus Afrika oder mit biographischen Bezug zu Afrika wahrzunehmen.

Konkret wollen wir uns mit der Darstellung Afrikas aus der Perspektive Schwarzer Berliner:innen sowie Akteur:innen mit afrikanischer Herkunft auseinandersetzen. Inwiefern kann auch Kunst als Mittel des Widerstands gegen (post)koloniale Narrative dienen? Wie können afrikanische Perspektiven sichtbarer gemacht und gestärkt werden? Welche Rolle spielen künstlerische Ausdrucksformen dabei, stereotype Bilder und rassistische Narrative zu hinterfragen und neu zu definieren? Mi, 23. Apr 2025, 18:30–20:00, mit Justice Mvemba (Mitte), Celia Parbey (rechts) und Eric Otieno Sumba (links), moderiert von Makda Isak

(Panel) 05 März 2025: 19:00 - 20:30 Uhr. Die Restitution hat begonnen: einige Benin-Bronzen und andere koloniale Raubgüter wurden bereits den Ursprungsländern übergeben. Die Kontroversen darum gehen aber weiter, seit Bronzen in Nigeria nach der Rückgabe in private Hand gelangten. Müssen die Zurückerstattenden das hinnehmen – oder gibt es auch eine Verantwortung der Ursprungsländer, global bedeutsames Kulturgut zugänglich zu halten? Das Podium fragt nach der Vision hinter der Restitution unter juristischen, politischen und kulturellen Perspektiven. Mit: Prof. Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner, Ethnologin und Leiterin des Museums am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK) in Hamburg, Eric Otieno Sumba, Politikwissenschaftler, Freier Autor und Redakteur im Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Dr. Mathias Zintler, LL.M, KNPZ Rechtsanwälte https://www.law-school.de/termin/restitution-von-raubgut-alles-muss-raus

(Exhibition Tour) Feb 26, 2025, 18:00–19:00. In this dialogical format, sociologist, political scientist and writer Eric Otieno Sumba and guest curator Cale Garrido examine selected works from the group exhibition A World in Common and place them in a wider socio-political context. In doing so, they focus on the emancipative strategies of African and Afro-diasporic artists. What role does art play in social discourse and with regard to social justice? https://co-berlin.org/de/veranstaltungen/looking-world-common Image: Courtesy Dawit Petros