Black Studium. A Tribute to Fasia Jansen, Hilarius Gilges & Joseph Ekwe Bilé

The publication Black Studium documents the installation Black Lives Audio Triptych by Ina Wudtke. It uncovers traces of the history of Black people in Germany and is a multidirectional reminder of past and present anti-racist struggles.  

The work activates archive material, in particular songs, texts and photos relating to Fasia Jansen (1929 – 1997), Hilarius Gilges (1909 – 1933) and Joseph Ekwe Bilé (1892 – 1959) – all three were active in the context of the workers’ movement. 

The audio work consists of three staged audio self-portraits. The staging goes back to the techniques of the agit-prop play groups of the Weimar Republic. Local dialects were often used to reach workers; the actors were not supposed to merge with the roles as in bourgeois theater.  

The speakers, through their current social commitment, can be seen as continuing the protagonists’ political work: Jasmin Eding (speaker Fasia), for example, belongs to a group of Black women who organized with others ADEFRA (Black Women in Germany) in the 1980s for the rights and visibility of Black people in Germany. The Krump dancer Kofie Boachie (speaker Hilarius Gilges) was instrumental in organizing the Black Lives Matter demos in Düsseldorf. Jaenne-Ange Wagne (speaker Joseph Ekwe Bilé) deals with the colonial entanglements of cultural institutions.