A BURDEN CONSUMED IN SIPS (2023)

​In December 2022, we set out on a trek across Cameroon to shoot Clips of Lebohang Kganye trotting across multiple landscapes in 9 different cities retracing the trail of the so-called Colonial Expedition of 1911 that the Thorbecke had embarked on 110 years ago.

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While the Thorbecke couple undertok the journey to appropriate objects and photograph people and this vast land for the purposes of imperial extraction, Lebohang Kganye set out to symbolically return the objects and images she encountered in the Rautenstauch-Joest-Museum that she studied during her residency in Cologne. the luggage she carries along the journey, symbolising the burden of colonial heritage.

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The exhibition is a response to the historical photo archive and collection of Rautenstrauch Joest Museum as part of Artist Meets Archive Program. The Exhibition was also be part of the Photoszene Festival in May between the 12-21st 2023.

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The film documents the 13 day trip in Cameroon travleing nine cities to reimagine 19th century colonial expeditions. The indigo fabric carried throughout the route contains objects to be returned to sites in Cameroon. The act of restituting the objects, the soil or vegetation to their country of origin as a spur to thinking, repairing and reworking the past.