The hybrid exhibition and discursive project Inside Archives stems from a critical examination of Leni Riefenstahl’s “Nuba work” by students enrolled in the Art in Context Master’s programme at Berlin University of Arts (UdK). During her travels to the Nuba Mountains in Sudan in the 1960s and 1970s, Riefenstahl photographed and filmed local people and their culture.

Inside Archives showcases a variety of media — installations, video and photographic projects, and written and audio works — developed by the UdK students and artists from Sudan. The project has been conceived as a dynamic, participatory process involving research, interviews, discussions and artistic practice, framed as a dialogue between art, science and lived experiences.

Hailing from diverse global backgrounds, the exhibiting artists bring their own stories and perceptions to the project, seeking to reinterpret Riefenstahl’s images in order to subvert their power, expose their layers of meaning, and explore new forms of storytelling. Workshops, interventions, readings and other educational formats offer further insights into how museums approach Riefenstahl’s work. Through artistic perspectives, the project aims to create new narratives, strengthen networks and help visitors engage with the challenging subject matter of the Nuba photographs, situated between the idealised stereotypes of the past and critical vantage point of today.

Participating Artists

Abdalsalam Alhaj, Camilo Correa-Costa, hajooj kuka, Jihye Kim, Jule Roehr, Khalid Shatta, Kodikodi, Mauricio Candela, Pascale Espinosa, Patricio Trim, Sally Frey, Sara-Hiruth Zewde, Schokofeh Kamiz and Yasmin Balai

Curators

Inside Archives forms part of an artistic-academic seminar at the Institute for Art in Context at Berlin University of the Arts, led by Julia Grosse (Art in Context) and Katrin Peters-Klaphake (Deutsches Historisches Museum). The exhibition project is curated by Julia Grosse and Katrin Peters-Klaphake in collaboration with Ludger Derenthal (Kunstbibliothek [Art Library], Photography Collection).

A special exhibition of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) in cooperation with the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin