Conversation: Syowia Kyambi, Mareike Späth, Eike Walkenhorst

Syowia Kyambi is joined by Mareike Späth and Eike Walkenhorst in an online conversation on the ongoing exhibition, KASPALE, at NCAI.

Mareike's work focuses on historiography and practices of the past in the present. She is particularly interested in entangled histories and heritage of Africa and Europe, their (non-)representation in archives, public places and public history, as well as marginalized narratives. Mareike Späth received formal academic training in Social and Cultural Anthropology, and after some years of researching and lecturing she swopped university for the museum. This was sparked by her interest in joining the broader movement to reconceptualize working with historical, colonial, ethnographic collections. She had the honor to witness Kaspale’s coming into this world while hosting Syowia at the MARKK Hamburg as assistant curator for the museum’s Africa department and she is now working as curator for the ethnographic collection at the Landesmuseum Hannover, Germany.

Eike Walkenhorst is a curator and photographer working across different fields and institutions. He studied Arts Management / Cultural Work and Photography (University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam / Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem) and Curatorial Studies (Goethe University / Städelschule, Frankfurt/Main). He founded the Artist in Residence programme INHABIT at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics and has led the programme as curator since 2019. He is interested in artistic works from different disciplines that pursue a research-based approach and embody a critical and poetic approach towards the past and present. Engaging with the various forms and cultures of knowledge, as well as the respective institutions, is also the focus and interest of his work as curator of the Artist in Residence programme.