KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Künstler*innen

Greg Semu

New Zealand

Greg Semu, Battle of the Noble Savage 2, 2007; Digital C-Type Print, Edition of 10, 100 x 100 cm. Courtesy: the artist & Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne; © Musée Quai Branly & Greg Semu 2007

I explore themes of cultural displacement and the significance of identity. Using photography, sound and film, I create evocative dialogues to challenge the romanticised colonialist documentation of “first contact”. The Berlin residency will allow me to research and mine the historical treasures reflecting “colonial” Samoa in German institutions, museums and galleries, with the prospect of a long-term relationship based on a shared ancestral collision of life-changing genealogies and futures. I will research German Samoa and “the colonial encounter” through a new series of photographs as well as video works and installations.

STAY
01.09.2014 – 01.09.2015