Mesdames Tirailleurs: Poetry Performance mit Matilda TheeGreat

Mesdames Tirailleurs
Poetry performance with Matilda TheeGreat
With an introduction by Dzekashu MacViban

Historiography all too often depicts wars through military narratives that emphasize victory and territorial conquest. The everyday lives of people during armed conflicts are often overlooked. These include the women known as Mesdames Tirailleurs - companions, wives and relatives of soldiers from West and North Africa who were deployed by the French Empire during the First and Second World Wars. These women crossed foreign landscapes, nursed the wounded, acted as translators and transported supplies. In addition to their practical work, they cultivated relationships and maintained their dignity under extremely precarious conditions. Nevertheless, their names barely appear in the official records of the time.

Mesdames Tirailleurs gives a voice to the descendants who continue to demand remembrance and reparations. The work of artist and activist Matilda TheeGreat also draws on the experiences of her grandfather Ben Makgate (Corporal N437), a tirailleur from South Africa, as well as the experiences of African soldiers who were captured after the siege of Tobruk in 1942, which have been erased from the historical record. Many of them were executed, others later died during the brutal "death march" through Europe in 1943. Based on her grandfather's diary entries, Matilda TheeGreat's performance attempts to acknowledge their biographies and hardships after they had long been excluded from the prevailing historical narratives.

The event is inspired by Saidiya Hartman's concept of 'critical fabulation' and brings together poetry, performance and speculative storytelling to give space to these narrative omissions. A special focus is placed on the perspectives of women. The audience is invited to wander through the HKW together with the performer and traverse the exhibition spaces as voices and memories unfold in dialog with the exhibited works.

Location: Forough Farrokhzad Garden

In English