Two Bodies, Two Landscapes

Greg Semus work revolves around themes such as identity, cultural displacement, the effects of colonialism on indigenous cultures and the impact of colonial Transfiguration. His artistic practice is articulated in photographic series and sound video recordings that run so often romanticized encounters with the “noble savage” or “Dusky Maiden”, the stereotypical “South Beauty” ironic.

In Berlin Greg researched mainly to the short-term “colonial encounter” between Germany and Samoa (1899 up to 1914) and the resulting altered genealogies and life stories – on both sides. Two Bodies, Two Landscapes reflects the short, contrary to expectations of no bloodshed embossed German -samoanische time and examined from a modern perspective with contemporary instruments that once divided, together lived historical episode. Visitors will find upon entering the gallery space two separate, running all around tunnel systems from which are to enter at will and leave: a symbol of the Dualiät in an “intimate colonial relationship” (Semu) coexisting cultures. Separate the two spaces thus created, combining at the same time the entire space and – viewed from a historical perspective – the past and present, the colonizer and the colonized. Greg plays in its atmospheric installation cryptically with stereotypes of exoticism, eroticism and sexuality to convey a historical-political situation in the contemporary consciousness.

Greg Semu

29 May – 21 June

Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Straße 10, Berlin, Germany