Zenkeri

Jonas Feige, Yana Wernicke

During the colonial era, the botanist Georg August Zenker, who lived in the German colony of Cameroon, was considered one of the most important collectors for supplying Berlin’s Botanical Museum. The photographic project of Yana Wernicke and Jonas Feige is dedicated to the history and effects of his life in Africa.

For their project, the two photographers traveled multiple times to today’s Republic of Cameroon to document the remains of Zenker’s villa in remote Bipindi in the middle of the jungle, as well as to portray the descendants still living there.

Wernicke and Feige’s project depicts the history of the Zenker family, which today faces the challenge of bringing its Cameroonian and German identities into harmony. In this exhibition, the two photographers seek to draw attention to the still-palpable effects of German colonialism and to point to the tensions that can arise while addressing the colonial legacy.

A scientific publication will be published in time for the opening by BGBM Press.