Jan Mammey and Falk Messerschmidt: Les statues meurent aussi

For the past eight years, Jan Mammey and Falk Messerschmidt have been working on a photographic research project about the remaining traces of colonialism in and around Paris. The project is called „Les statues meurent aussi.“ A selection of works will now be shown in the F/Stop satellite Kunstraum Michael Barthel.

 

The Jardin d‘Agronomie Tropicale is a little-known relic of the world exhibit of 1907, which included a zoo, an ethnographic showroom, an arboretum, and a real estate agency (to attract emigrants). As a fitting backdrop, a series of pavilions were built around African and Asian themes. Some of these are still visible today, either as ruins or as renovated structures.

 

A recurrent focus of the project is the remnants of a statue titled „To the glory of the colonial expansion“, which in the 1960s was taken down and has since been rotting away on the site.