Staff: Kamal Ranchod & Lorenzo Nassimbeni
Specialists: Kamal Ranchod & Lorenzo Nassimbeni
Advisors: Napandulwe Shiweda, Larissa Förster, Reinhart Kössler, Dieter Brandt

Tuli Mekondjo, a Namibian performance artist based in Windhoek, Namibia. Tuli Mekondjo, which means “we are in the struggle”, was born in the Kwanza-Zul refugee camp in Angola to Namibian parents in exile. Her artistic work explores the construction of identity in the shadow of Namibia’s violent history as a former German and later South African colony. Central to her creative expression is the presence of female ancestors. Mekondjos work has been exhibited widely in Namibia, South Africa, France, the United States, Hong Kong, and Germany. Notably, in 2024, she has been awarded the Villa Romana Residency Prize in Florence, Italy. Her prominence on the international art scene was further underscored by exhibitions at esteemed venues such as Frieze London, Art Central Hong Kong, EXPO Chicago und ARCO Lisboa. The preceding year, she was in residency with the DAAD, in Berlin and a finalist in the Norval Sovereign African Art Price at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. Her work is represented in multiple international collections. 

Nicola Brandt, an artist of German and Namibian descent hast spent the last decade challenging established perceptions of Namibia through her art. Her work has played a role in shaping intergovernmental dialogs between Namibia and Germany and has been exhibited internationally. In 2021, she founded “Conversations Across Place (CaP)”, a research and writing platform focused on engaging with the concept of place and memory in the broader sense. Currently she is working, in collaboration with Steidl Verlag, on a photo book project which reflects on legacies of German colonialism, landscape, and photographic traditions since the Namibian genocide of 1904 to 1908. Brandt works at the intersection between memory studies, landscape, ecology, and feminist and queer theory. Much of her work centers around themes of power, desire, and destruction.

Muningandu Swithin Hoveka, a multidisciplinary artist from Namibia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Creative Expression and Ceramic Studies she delved into freelancing as a theater movement artist collaboration with the ensemble The [ ] Project, whose most recent works are based on decolonial practices. Currently, she serves as an intern at the National Art Gallery of Namibia within the curator’s department and an administrative assistant for a project centered on repatriated objects returned to Namibia from Germany.  In 2018 she received the “Baden-Württemberg-Scholarship“ of the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Her artistic work is deeply concerned with queer feminist perspectives, decolonizing practices, and reimagining (contemporary) culture. 

Link to artistic design