G IS FOR GABON and G IS FOR GERMANY

Bikoro is a fantastically talented young artist who by her early thirties has managed to accomplish a vibrant career in the art world while at the same time winning a 10 year long battle with cancer. Think about Bikoro next time you procrastinate, maybe? Bikoro’s art practice is concerned with issues of decolonialization, migration in identity and language, collective memory and humans serving as monuments. The striking project depicted here is part of an ongoing effort to create mass cultural graves to colonialism in African countries. Part of it is a photo project where descendants of people of African and other colonial descents who were incarcerated in concentration camps, have the stars of David made from African wax fabrics attached to their arms. The body bleeds, bruises, scorches, making it clear that colonization is not only about territories taken away, it’s everywhere, from nervous conditions, and broken skin, to economic and cultural grips that won’t let go.