BE.BOP 2016, Black Europe Body Politics Call & Response: Reflections on Maroon societies and the universality of Blackness: Jeannette Ehlers

 Maroon |məˈro͞on| 
nouna member of any of various communities in parts of the Caribbean who were originally descended from escaped slaves. In the 18th century Jamaican Maroons fought two wars against the British settlers, both of which ended with treaties affirming the independence of the Maroons.--The New Oxford American DictionaryWhat is it that you think about when you hear the word "maroon"? Is it the color? Is it as a verb - as in, 'to be marooned'? Abandoned? Or is it in the sense of creating safe spaces, amidst hostile territories in the way many captured Africans and their descendents did in Jamaica and other areas throughout the diaspora? 

The fact remains, and we can never emphasize it enough, that the maroon is the only true popular hero of the Caribbean...an indisputable example of systematic opposition, of total refusal. 

--Edouard Glissant

Danish-Trinidadian artist Jeannette Ehlers leads the parade through Berlin

It's been a few days since I have returned from BE.BOP 2016, Black Europe Body Politics Call & Response and it is to this word that I often turn during my reflections of this event. With three days in Berlin at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz  (June 1-3) and a following three days in Copenhagen at Trampoline House and the University of Copenhagen (June 5-7),  BE.BOP 2016 presented performances, panel discussions and movies all centering around Afropean decoloniality with participants from over 20 countries around the world.  I will spend the next few posts presenting highlights of this very important event. 

Founded, conceived and curated by Alanna Lockward of Art Labour Archives who herself describes BE.BOP as  "a generative curatorial script. I stage a dramaturgy, and each participant is a star in their own right who recreates the script following their own connection with spirit." Art Labour Archives "links the radical imaginations of theory, political activism, healing and decolonial aesthetics/aesthesis". 
In this BE.BOP 2016 series I will highlight a small sampling of the highlights of this years' incarnation of BE.BOP with the first artist being Danish Trinidadian artist Jeannette Ehlers who presented a commissioned public space sculpture along with a performance and European premiere of "Parade". 

 "One love, one aim, many destinies. The Black parade: Let's liberate!" parade.  

Danish-Trinidadian artist Jeannette Ehlers presented the world premiere of her "The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice" along with the European premiere of "One love, one aim, many destinies. The Black parade: Let's liberate!"  Blasting Kendrik Lamar from a boombox a police-escorted parade of more than 50 participants with bobbing black balloons "carried the spirit of the 'Black Berry' into the heart of Berlin and its colonial racist presences. Passing Rosentrasse, where during the Nazi dictatorship, women protested the detention of their Jewish husbands based on the racist miscegenation laws which can be traced back to similar laws of 1907 in today's Namibia, a former German colony in the African continent." The parade went through the heart of Berlin's center to the newly rebuilt Berlin Castle, where a museum of an iconic German "non-European collection" of looted objects will be on display. 

The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice by Jeannette Ehlers 

The simple balloon floating in front of Volksbuhne at Rosa-Luxembourg Square throughout the duration of BE.BOP 2016 can be described as a "subtle tribute to maroonage. It contextualizes the idea of protest, counterculture and empowerment on a super simple but intense manner in the form of the huge black balloon...accompanied by call and response music.

As with all of the other work I have seen of Ehlers - I, as well as the participants and passers-by, could not help but be mesmerized and affected by the positive energy that this movement, happening and performance imbibed the atmosphere with.  It was if the ancestors were there - walking beside us, making us feel as if we too were floating like these helium-filled balloons. Even the police, who escorted us throughout the entire parade offered a type of protection, with even one officer, it is said, to have cried as we all simultaneously let go of our balloons in front of the Berlin castle.  As I watched the balloons fly away, I could not help but think that in these days and times, how important it is that we all can find sanctuary- a safe space, a maroon-like space and I felt especially privileged that I could be a part of this.