HERE UND THERE
The exhibition Here und There instigates reflections on the uniquely temporal states of two urban spaces, Kumasi (Ghana) and Karlsruhe (Germany). With videos, objects, and paintings, Ernest Kankam’s artistic preoccupation with information accumulation, memory, and recollection leads his efforts to complicate the similarities and differences between his home city in Ghana and Karlsruhe, following a six-month exchange programme under the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM. Kankam’s work derives from curiosity, observation, and interventional tactics that speak of cities as inspiration and a medium for visual culture.
Here und There offers a new transitory reality to Kriegsstrasse 134, a space already under transformation – changing from an apartment into a gallery space. From its walls, posters and paintings charge the space with imagery evocative of the larger cities. Objects collected from the streets of the cities are installed in the space. Kankam’s use of collage extends from the exhibition title to pictorial constructions made with sourced fabric and draped on bamboo structures. These pictures offer an almost ahistorical narration of city life. The exhibition leaves the audience with a microcosmic overview of a fictional city riddled with abandoned and/or transitory spaces.