“When Baakenhafen Speaks” – A Participatory Intervention by Kajan Luc

Intervention in the public space with voices of affected communities, Amerigo Vespucci Platz, HafenCity, Hamburg as part of the festival Stimme X and Lab of Asian Diaspora on June 27, 2026

With (audio) contributions by Prince Kamazeengi Marenga, Unomasa Jameela Mupia, Immaculata Hiền Thơ Nguyễn, Lorenda Opoku, and Hang Su.

Who shapes memory—and for whom? Which perspectives, stories, and communities have been missing until now? And how can voices, visual materials, and artistic means be used to open, reopen, and renegotiate new spaces of memory within the urban landscape? Baakenhafen in Hamburg’s HafenCity is one of the few authentic sites in Germany directly linked to the genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples, which Germany perpetrated between 1904 and 1908 in what is now Namibia. It was from here that approximately 95% of troop transports were dispatched and publicly seen off and welcomed. Today, this history is increasingly disappearing behind new buildings—from the planned waterfront houses on Petersenkai to the prestigious opera house at Baakenhöft, financed by Klaus-Michael Kühne. A memorial site at Baakenhafen has not yet been realized.

What if Baakenhafen could speak for itself? What would this place tell us? And what would a memorial site designed by citizens themselves look like? Using visual and auditory media, we will collaboratively develop artistic visions for a decolonial memorial. In this process, Baakenhafen will be reimagined as a space for collective remembrance, critical learning, and public discourse. The intervention invites participants to engage with Hamburg’s colonial past, uncover gaps in the narrative, and develop their own perspectives.

by Liz Rech and Camissa Create

Intervention in the public space at Baakenhafen as part of City Curator Hamburg Counter-Monuments series and the International Summer Festival Kampnagel on August 12-16, 2026.

The performative walk invited the audiences to engage with the colonial legacy and the Hamburger Baakenhafen as an unfinished postcolonial memorial site. It is from here that the so-called "Schutztruppen" („protection troops") departed in 1904-07 to commit genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples in present-day Namibia. The walk imagined new forms of transnational reckoning sitting between reconciliation and separation, between unpayable debt and the repair. It brought the unsettling legacies and intimate pasts into the city's public memory and opened up a space for uncomfortable common ground (s).

Artistic Concept: Liz Rech/Camissa Create
Participating Artists: Celina Abba, Ariane Andereggen, Glen Arendse, Memory Biwa, Cabañero, Lucy Campbell, Daniel Dominguez Teruel, Nikola Duric, Fahnenschwinger Konstanz e.V. (Svenja Freimoser, Alexandra Mennel), Ted Gaier, Heinrich Horwitz, Janis Jirotka, Luke De Kock, Kajan Luc, Robert Machiri, Trixie Munyama, Jameela Mupia, David Odiase, Haymich Olivier, Shield and Shine Special Forces, Liz Rech, Till Wolfer a.o.