With his international art projects, media artist Mansour Ciss Kanakassy from Dakar, Senegal, aims to bring about lasting change in relations between Africa and Europe through the communication of knowledge and innovation.
One of Kanakasy’s best-known projects is the “Laboratoire de Déberlinisation”: In reference to the notorious Congo Conference that took place in Berlin from November 1884 to February 1885 under the spearhead of the first German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, Berlin-based Senegalese artist Mansour Ciss Kanakassy created an art laboratory in 2001 called Laboratoire de Déberlinisation (laboratory of deberlinization). The laboratory is a conceptual framework for artistic action to unpack the exploitation and mercantile ideologies applied on Africa in the late nineteenth century known as the Scramble for Africa. It works collaboratively by reaching out to diverse professional backgrounds and artistic practices.
Another action of Kanakassy was the introduction of the imaginary African currency AFRO. In doing so, he created a concept for an Africa based on solidarity and independence, which he sees as a response to policies of the “post-independence era.” The current edition of Le Laboratoire de Déberlinisation is entitled The Factory of the Future and is presented in the form of an Afro Bank kiosk branch, whose „employees“ explain the concept of Le Laboratoire de Déberlinisation to visitors. During the run of the exhibition Forgive Us Our Trespasses at HKW until December 8, 2024, the Afro will also be accepted by HKW as the (in-)official currency for paying for coffee and other drinks in the Weltwirtschaft restaurant.
