Season 5, curated by Jan Dammel, focuses on artistic interventions in Germany that deal with colonialism and its ongoing legacies. This first episode features multi-disciplinary artist Percy Nii Nortey and curator Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard, who collaborated on the group exhibition “Colonial Ghosts – Resistant Spirits” in Berlin’s St. Nicholas Church. Learn more about Nortey’s dialogue with, and celebration of, the working class in Ghana and how bold fabric and sonic artworks, also by Theresa Weber, challenge and transform post/colonial (church) spaces.

To listen to Nortey's full-length sound installation and read more about the persons represented on the textile works, go to his website.

In Conversation With

Percy Nii Nortey is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kumasi, Ghana. His practice explores materiality, identity, labour, and memory, blurring the boundaries between performative objects, painting, sound installation, moving sculptures, and video installation. His practice is deeply rooted in his personal history, the environmental and economic conditions of Ghana and aims to decolonize minds and empower black communities, reclaiming agency over their narratives and identities. Nortey holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Art (Painting) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Next to the Dekoloniale Berlin Residency and Dekoloniale Festival 2024, Nortey’s work has been presented at multiple festivals and art venues, such as Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Museum of Science & Technology and Brazil House in Accra and Kaserne Basel. In 2025, he completed residencies at Artlink at Fort Dunree, Art Hub Copenhagen and Künstlerdorf Schöppingen.

Website

Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard is a cultural activist, curator, production manager, journalist, editor, and filmmaker. She is co-director and artistic director at Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V. in Berlin where she curates the annual Afrolution festival. She was responsible for the discursive and performative formats within the five-year collaborative project Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City (2020-2024). Her works include: Narrating African FutureS (co-edited with Susan Arndt, 2020) and the documentary series ReMIX. Africa in Translation (with Nicolas Grange, 2017). She lives and works in Berlin and Munich.

Website EOTO

References

The exhibition Colonial Ghosts – Resistant Spirits. Church, Colonialism and beyond (November 14, 2024 – September 14, 2025), Museum Nikolaikirche Berlin, was part of the larger, decentralized exhibition Dekoloniale – What remains?! at various locations in Berlin-Mitte.

Exhibition brochure: Ébené, Philippa / Suy Lan Hopmann / Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard (Ed.): Dekoloniale – What Remains?! : Koloniale Gespenster – widerständige Geister : Kirche, Kolonialismus und danach / Dekoloniale – What Remains?! : Colonial Ghosts – Resistant Spirits : Church Colonialism and Beyond. Berlin: Verlag M, Stiftung Stadtmusem Berlin 2025. (available at desk in Nikolaikirche)

Final publication by Dekoloniale project: Berlin Postkolonial / Each One Teach One (EOTO) / Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland / Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin (Ed.): Dekoloniale: Erinnerungskultur in der Stadt / Dekoloniale: Memory Culture in the City. Berlin: Falschrum 2025.

Installations Mentioned

Percy Nii Nortey, Poetics of Material Memory (2019), Brazil House, Accra

Poetics of Material Memory

Percy Nii Nortey, Transporter 31500 (2020), Top High, Kumasi

Percy Nii Nortey, Break from Reality (2024), Museum Nikolaikirche, Berlin (More info and photos)

Theresa Weber, Entangled Histories of the Blue (2024), Museum Nikolaikirche, Berlin (More info and photos)

Credits

Sounds

Visuals

Podcast Info