The Distance Within by Nicola Brandt

Loading player...
This episode of Pagecast is brought to you in collaboration with the ARTdacity podcast, just in time for the Investec Art Fair later this month. This week, Jo-Ann Strauss interviews Nicola Brandt about her book, The Distance Within, which features photographs and video stills made over more than a decade.

The Distance Within reflects on Nicola Brandt’s German and Namibian inheritance and deconstructs certain established ways of seeing Namibia. Brandt traveled the country extensively, documenting landscapes and people, structures and encounters, to reveal ensnared histories of German colonialism, National Socialism and apartheid. Markers of these histories range from the ephemeral and private, such as a dilapidated mound of stones as a roadside memorial, to official sites of remembrance and resistance, particularly for colonial atrocities. Alongside her images, Brandt assembles texts by thought leaders in photography, postcolonial cultures, memory and genocide studies, as well as material from private and public archives, to understand enduring blind spots. The result is an intersectional argument in favor of reclaiming suppressed indigenous stories and identities, undoing romantic notions of whiteness, and, ultimately, illuminating what has not been visible.

You can find ARTdacity here: https://www.artdacity.co.za/
#Pagecast #capetownartist #artbookrecommendations
9 Feb English South Africa Books · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Pagecast at Kingsmead Book Fair: Lebo Mazibuko

Pagecast recorded live at the Kingsmead Book Fair, where Lebo Mazibuko sat down with Zwanga Nemanshi from Jonathan Ball Publishers for a candid conversation about her latest novel, Fabrics of Love. In this episode, Lebo reflects on the stories and inspirations behind the book - a moving exploration of love,…
1 Jun 14 min