In her work, artist Ina Wudtke uncovers traces of Black history in Germany and commemorates past and present anti-racist struggles in a multidirectional way. For her site-specific work FASIA, sheactivates archival material such as songs, texts, and photos by Fasia Jansen (1929–1997), Hilarius Gilges (1909-1933), and Joseph Ekwe Bilé (1892-1959), who were active in the context of the labor movement against racism and colonialism in Germany. The exhibition project FASIA comprises a banner on the facade of the Fux eG building and an installation titled Black Lives Audio Triptych in the Fasiathek.
Fasia Jansen was the daughter of Elli Jansen and Momulu Massaquoi, the then Liberian Consul General in Hamburg. Fasia grew up with her mother and her husband Albert in a communist household in the working-class district of Rothenburgsort. As a Black German, she was forced to work in a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp at the age of 15. After World War II, she became a voice against racism and war in the Easter March movement, the labor struggles in the Ruhr region, and the women's movement.
The Black Lives Audio Triptych consists of three staged audio self-portraits by Fasia Jansen, Hilarius Gilges, and Joseph Ekwe Bilé and will be available for listening throughout the duration of the exhibition in the space of the Fasiathek. When selecting the speakers — Jasmin Eding, Jeanne-Ange Wagne, and Kofie Bouchie aka Kofie da Vibe — Ina Wudtke focused on their current social engagement, which is understood as a continuation of the political work of the respective protagonists.
Ina Wudtke & ARCA e.V.
FASIA
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Ina Wudtke, Fasia (Silkscreen print, detail) © Ina Wudtke
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Biography
Ina Wudtke is a Berlin-based artist whose research-driven work challenges dominant political narratives around labor, gender, housing, and colonial legacies. A founding member of the queer-feminist collective NEID, she has exhibited widely and taught at the Art Academy in Kassel. Together with Dieter Lesage, she wrote the book Black Sound White Cube (Vienna, Löcker Verlag, 2010). Her LP The Fine Art of Living was released as part of the exhibition Black Sound White Cube in 2011. In 2018, the eponymous book on her artistic work on the housing question from 2008-2018 was published by Archive Books. The publication Worker Writers. From MASCH to Greif zur Feder (Berlin, Motto Books, 2022) offers an overview of her works related to the workers’ movement. In 2024, she was awarded the Max Kade / Charlotte M. Craig Fellowship at Rutgers The State University of New Jersey.
ARCA - African Education Center e.V. is a Hamburg-based organization, founded in 2009, that has joined forces to positively change the lives of African, Black German, and Afro-diasporic residents, especially women*, make their perspectives visible and empower them to be perceived as active agents. Through their work, ARCA strives for greater diversity in society so that everyone's voice is heard, not just those with money or power.