Mapping Black Europe

One of the postcards from Negerhossen2000

After visiting the Lemmerman Gallery, the two pieces that stood out to me the most from the Dis/location: Mapping Black Europe exhibition are the Negerhossen2000 and the Black Magic at the white house.
                The Negerhossen2000 really caught my attention from its presentation and the way it was set up - Everything was old school even the postcard gave off a rich history essence. To understand this piece is to understand the person that made it. Jean-Ulrick is an artist with a mission in mind. His art is meant to attract attention and awareness to old fashion misconceptions of race - gender and sexuality inequalities. What is unique about him is that he reconstructs these misconceptions using very subtle historical metaphors. The piece Negerhossen2000 is actually a part of a much bigger concept/project that Ulrick is working on called the white lessons project. The whole theme behind this is to have an " investigation of whiteness" This is primarily to test out the difference in treatment that whites get opposed to people of color.
          In this specific piece, the Negerhosen2000, Jean-Ulrick goes to a primarily white country ( Germany ) and dresses in lederhosen that is white in color. This experiment is to find out how people will treat him. Now, in this society, we are supposed to be very equal and accept people of different color and ethnicity and Jean-Ulrick was putting that to the test. He walked around public places in that outfit and was basically treated as a " Spectacle". People stopped him to take pictures and pose with him .. because he's black? If it was a white person walking, it would not have been such a big deal. It was such a close-minded environment that people did not know how to deal with a black person around them.
Thompson Nato said " It is hard to think of art without also thinking closely about the museums, art schools, and galleries through which most of it finds its way to the world ( Thompson 2015)" With the Negerhossen2000 it was neither of those things yet it is very influential art that makes a statement. Art does not need to be the most amazingly produced work but it's really the meaning behind it. Jean-Ulrick was able to shine more light on an issue that has been around for centuries - racism. He showed us that even in this free and advanced of a society - black will still be treated abnormally than whites. To me, the beauty of this piece is that it was not a hateful or white-shaming vibe, it was very lightweight and Jean was even smiling in some of those pictures that connected to a bigger issue that millions face on a daily. This was an activism piece in the sense that it did bring attention to an issue that is so fixed and deeply rooted in our society.
 

One of Jean-Ulrick's other pieces addressing transgenders 

         The second piece, the Black Girl Magic at the White House, was also one of my favorites. This was the first to really catch my attention. It was well done and everything in the video complimented each other in an artistic yet cultural way. The artist behind this piece is Jeannette Ehlers. Jeannette focused her Art around a big issue in Denmark which is colonial Amnesia. Europe also played its fair share of slaves and slave trading but somehow it is never talked about. It is almost like the entire country just pretends it never happened but they are still reaping the products from when they had slaves. Jeannette saw an opportunity to shine a light to that issue because it does need to be addressed and not swept under the rug because History tends to repeat itself.

          In her video, she has an imitation of herself dancing to the traditional Vodou Drumming dance in a house that was built on the backs of slaves. That video was like a time capsule showing her emotions of the times where Danmark participated in owning slaves. The motion of her appearing and disappearing throughout the dance expressed how invisible she felt at the time because slaves were treated so inhumane. Her dance summed up how proud she was of her culture and how that culture is also what was abused during that time. At first, I thought it was a regular traditional dance but it actually has a deeper meaning to it. The Vodou dance is performed to ask the gods for help, health, and protection from any evil spirits. She performed this dance in the house of a rich slave owner - the root of evil. That dance was a symbol to help the people that were kidnapped - sold - killed etc...

      Thompson said," Time and again, I have seen the potent merger of Art and Activism transform people's understanding with politics and their relationship with the world around them ( Thompson 2015)" This was so true for this piece because this took a historical event and transformed it into an Art piece that people will learn from. It will help people from all over the world connect to this piece of history and understand it through her eyes and unique way of expression. Pieces of Art that draw attention to issues like this end up helping the community so much because they give so many different interpretations and emotions of a traumatic point of time for people to feel.

Black Bullets: Beautiful piece from Jeanette expressing the success of Haiti's Independence during slave periods.

Screen Capture from Black Magic at the White House


Works Cited
Thompson, N. (2015). Cultural Production Makes A World. In N. Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century ( intro ). New York: Melville House.