Malawi – Menschen und Mauern

While the artist Kris Heide lived in Malawi in 2014/2015, the country was classified by the World Bank as one of the poorest countries on earth. This problem is palpable in some of the images, but is not the focus of the presentation. Poverty voyeurism doesn’t help, and a focus on this angle doesn’t correspond to the country’s people’s attitude to life. Rather, she directed her gaze to characteristic situations of everyday life and their urban environment. Photography was not always easy in Malawi. From the times of Kamuzu Banda’s dictatorship from 1964 to 1994, there was a ban on photographing the markets. Since it is still frowned upon, the author had to get the consent of the stall holders and people pictured. The focus of the book and exhibition will be on the theme of people and walls. This concept is intended to intuitively introduce the viewer to problems of Malawi, but also to broaden the view to worldwide phenomena of exclusion that are becoming socially acceptable again. The depiction of Malawians, who present themselves naturally and confidently as complex personalities in their professions, is modeled on the unforgotten works of August Sander. The walls depicted characterize urban life. In their diversity, they refer to great social differences and injustices whose origins lie in colonialism.

Kris Heide received her doctorate in art history from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. She studied painting and drawing with Arno Reins in Bonn and with Frido Hohberger at the Drawing Institute of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. Stays of several months took her to Kyoto (1992), Dundee (1994), Seattle (1996), Cincinnati and Montreal (1999), San Diego (2005) and Shanghai (2010/2011). Solo and group exhibitions since 2011 in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tübingen, Reutlingen, Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen and Blantyre, Lilongwe in Malawi.