Writer, poet, and director– thandiwe adofo came to Berlin to expand their already prodigious creative practice into the visual arts. thandiwe’s Artist Residency Project is driven by her experience of the concurrent dualities of contemporary and historical Berlin – a city where time-frames perpetually overlap and history is always present – alongside her ongoing research into the horrors and abuse of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following a curatorial program focused on exposure to diverse practices of text-based art, thandiwe has turned their texts into visual installations. Mobilizing the poetry they have written while in Berlin, thandiwe creates insightful, jarring, and compelling works that are meant to revolutionize and radicalize the viewer while also crafting purposeful dialogue for onlookers to engage with.

i took a walk aimlessly through berlin
my fingers graced the feeling of war for the first time
embedded into the scape living through tides of silence
bullet holes rest gracing the presence of
a woman and her friend share a rolled cigarette
in german they speak of
a lost lover and his new found virtue
or a man with his daughter in the trolley
chasing the ghost of her mother
bullets lay claim to the pads of my fingers
claiming another life
yes, i walk aim less ly throughout berlin
i feel cold
on the tip of my tongue
there is a certain permanence here within the wine they drink
and the tingle of a child’s laugh
as her father chases down death
or a the smoke of a rolled cigarette brimming with hope
it stays within them, a remembrance thou shall not forget
but bullet holes are still scars
not filled, not forgotten but
not solved– truly. because
the permanence of war
resides within the land within the buildings
both that stood and that fell within the cobblestones we walk upon
yet
it is still torn within the people they live on
with the torture of the past
residing within their bodies bleeding out like bullet holes.

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