Exhibition «This world is not my home»

22.07.2008, Bonaventure Ndikung Soh Bejeng

It sounds like a tautology, as we usually associate our home to our world and vice versa. The phrase "this is my world" is often used as a reference to the four walls that define our home, our country or on a larger scale, a continent. Yet, it also has a contradictory connotation, as this world is actually a habitat to a wide variety of living beings and umbrella to our many small homes.

The need to confine our own living space harbours sentiments like pride, patriotism and belonging. Thus, a need for identification. This concept of identification is defined by languages or traditions of a place, where we were born, grew up or for some reason, feel particularly, physically and/or sentimentally affiliated to. The feeling of belonging to or owning a world is on the other side of the coin, accompanied by a habit of protection, which expresses itself in different ways; e.g., the tendency of xenophobia, which comes from the Greek "xenos"- foreigner and "phobos"-fear, arises as a protective measure to secure our base. This could lead to contempt to all that is strange and that might intrude our space. So is the case with racism, when the common denominator is colour of the skin, eye or hair, bringing about reproaches to otherness and "métissage". The yearn to create small worlds for ourselves, to feel at ‘home’, does not only meet with our social needs but also resonates to seclusion and segregation.

Relationship

Our relationship to the world can be likened to a subject-object relationship, in which the subject perpetually consumes the object. While being the subjects and acting as "masters" of the world, we put less value on respect towards other living beings, who share the same environment as we do. This can be illustrated by the following examples: the building of dams to provide us with energy, but also leads to the displacement and vitiation of nature; the deforestation to supply us with wood is still a disaster to natural habitats of millions of other living beings; the ecosystem is still afflicted by oil spills for our energy needs; the numerous scientific trials on animals for our cosmetics and medicines; And how are we yet to cope with our weaponry of mass destruction?

If this world is our home, how can we walk in it without considering the scars we leave behind? If this world is our home, how can we be so nonchalant to other co-inhabitants of this home?

Exhibition

This group exhibition invites artists of diverse nationalities to pose questions, without an immediate urge for answers. It beckons artists to express themselves on issues such as togetherness, identification, phobia, nature or in short our psycho-social conditions. An appropriate line from a gospel hymn says: "this world is not my home, I am just passing through".

Julian Ronnefeldt
Installation

Andrea Borgueno
Exhibition-Soundtrack
















































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Bonaventure Ndikung Soh Bejeng