Doreen Mende
Doreen Mende presents her work related to the Travelling Communiqué project in collaboration with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and the Museum of Yugoslav History. This work focuses on photo archives, including the presidential press service archive of Tito. The project, which explores the Yugoslav perspective on the Non-Aligned Movement, raises many issues, such as globalisation, politics of inclusion, the use of images in political movements, and colonialism.
Synthesis
Travelling Communiqué • HKW • Long-term, collaborative research project • Artist Milica Tomić • Museum of Yugoslav History • The presidential press service archive of Tito • The Otolith Group • Expand…
Travelling Communiqué • HKW • Long term, collaborative research project • Artist Milica Tomic • Museum of Yugoslav History • The presidential press service archive of Tito • The Otolith Group • The Dutch Art Institute • The Non-Aligned Movement, its first conference in Belgrade from September 1–5, 1961 • Why deal with this topic in an era of globalisation • Politics of inclusion by a condition of permanent war • Tito’s affinity with images • Tito’s construction of a cinema in the Museum of Yugoslav History • Image production a crucial instrument of militant cinema vs. an instrument to continue an independence movement • How can we make use of this archival material in the context of the HKW? • Interventions into the historical material • What could be the Ethiopian horizon in the Non-Aligned Movement? • The first conference of the African Union in 1963 • The film Blood Is Not Fresh Water – suggesting a way of reading history through different culture rituals • Different concepts of history • The document as a historical indication of a moment • The inner split that appears or emerges in the figure of Tito • The ambivalent or paradoxical situation between independence movement and structure of the state • The impact colonialism had on the particular countries on the African continent • We are not working only with the archive presidential press service • Relating to these historical moments via images, speeches, and films • The Non-Aligned Movement still going today – hosted by Iran • This power or force is not like the master plan for a new world order or for another universalism
Short biography
Doreen Mende, curator interested in theoretical and practical issues of exhibiting with regard to space and geopolitics. Expand…
Doreen Mende, curator interested in theoretical and practical issues of exhibiting with regard to space and geopolitics. In 2011, she was a fellow of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. She completed her practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths in 2013. She is co-founder of the publication series Displayer at HfG/ZKM in Karlsruhe and currently teaches at the Dutch Art Institute. With Milica Tomic, Armin Linke, and other authors, she is currently working on the project Travelling Communiqué, which discusses the topicalities of the Yugoslav Presidential Press Service / Photo Section in Belgrade during Tito’s presidency from 1948 to 1980.