Cameroon and Congo

A search of traces and phantom geography

Andréas Lang

Exploring his mother’s attic, Andréas Lang happened upon the writings and historical photographs of his great-grandfather, who was a member of the so-called Colonial Protection Force in the former German colony of Cameroon from 1909 to 1914. In 1912/13, he took part in a French–German border expedition to seize and survey parts of French Equatorial Africa as a German colony. The texts, which offer compelling insights into colonial hubris, were the point of departure for an investigation of remaining traces, additional research, and two trips that Lang took to Cameroon, Chad and the adjoining Congo region. The exhibition is an in-depth exploration of German–Cameroonian history and shows photos and video installations that navigate the border between past and present, imagination and reality.
In his works, Lang is interested in the hidden history of a place, whether it’s of a historical, mythological or personal nature: a kind of visual archaeology, an attempt to capture the spirit of a place.