Tuli Mekondjo at Spore Berlin, Germany

Fractured Lifeworlds at Spore Berlin, Germany through April 2027, explores the legacy of Germany's brutal colonisation of southwest Africa (1884–1915), offering an account of ancestral lifeworlds lost to colonial violence. Developed over four years by Forensis and Forensic Architecture in collaboration with researchers, descendant communities, oral historians, Indigenous scholars and activists in Namibia and Germany, the exhibition examines how the legacies of colonial violence, dispossession, genocide and environmental exploitation remain unresolved today.
 
Tuli Mekondjo's Schutztruppe (2022) is included in Fractured Lifeworlds. Originally worn by German colonial soldiers, the Schutztruppe uniform was adopted by Herero men following the genocide of 1904–1908 and transformed into traditional regalia. Through this act of reclamation, the uniform became a living, embodied memorial to resistance, remembrance and cultural survival. By meticulously stitching the image of a human skeleton onto the garment—a second act of appropriation—Mekondjo pays tribute to the Nama and Herero prisoners who died on Shark Island in Lüderitz, many of whose skulls were sent to Germany for racial and eugenics research.
 
August 3, 2026