5 Exponate

The biographical material performance FÜNF EXPONATE of KMZ Kollektiv is a plea against the Western gaze. The Latin American-European team presents decolonial perspectives on the complex mesh of themes around museums, heritage, appropriation, restitution, knowledge and beliefs in a postcolonial present while negotiating the possibilities of dialogue and cooperation at eye level between the global South and North.

The piece takes its starting point with Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and his journeys to Latin America, which are still effective today, his so-called discovery and naming of animals, landscapes and plants – his “enlightenment”, which at times obscures the view.The two performers Laia RiCa and Antonio Cerezo were born in Latin America and socialized in the Western culture. They tell how the colonial overwritings still resonate in them and in the collective subconscious of their families and go in search of a history of knowledge that was interrupted by the colonization of Latin America. Considered by them are the exhibits potatoes and plaster. Potatoes as a living plant, as metaphors for successfully integrated migrant, the origin, malleability, the quality of adaptability. Plaster for the cheap reproduction of stolen Latin American objects now exhibited in European museums.The sound world of Yahima Piedra Córdova emanates from these materials and their sound. The musician is live on stage as a third performer, bringing her composition to life in each performance. Video artist Daniela del Pomar’s live visuals set the stage and give the audience documentary insights into the exhibits on stage, microscopically lead into the hidden inner world of potato plants and plaster, and follow Humboldt’s journey and its performative deconstruction with comic clips.

In their multi-award-winning production COFFEE WITH SUGAR? the collective already dealt with colonial continuities and biographical material. The group from El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Spain and Germany continues this path with FÜNF EXPONATE.
FÜNF EXPONATE is a plea against intellectual superiority and the dualism between civilization and barbarism, knowledge and superstition, us and them.