The Democracy Project

Curated by Reynaldo Anderson and The Black Speculative Arts Movement

The Black Speculative Arts Movement presents a visual-arts interpretive retrospective of Germany’s Weimar Republic. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s play Drums in the Night, The Democracy Project explores the aftermath of World War I, its links to imperialism, the creativity throughout the Weimar period, and the struggle over the future fought in the streets. With influences that range from Aleister Crowley, Otto Dix, Kurt Weill, and Paul Klee to art and the architecture of Bauhaus and jazz, The Democracy Project highlights how the esoteric, the speculative, and the outsider were creative features of modernity. The exhibition’s three-part focus is on the threat to democratic values, complexity, and inclusive societies around the themes of Desire, Deliverance, and Descent. The Democracy Project further explores how the Weimar Republic influenced contemporary American culture and vice versa, providing lessons on how our own society must deal with threats to democratic values. 

The theme of Desire focuses on the occult and science fiction—both features of the Weimar Republic. Figures like Aleister Crowley, Fritz Lang, and others were influential in the practice or emergence of theosophy, Dadaism, surrealism, New Objectivity, Bauhaus, and other art forms alongside new sexual freedoms, technology, and democracy in post-imperial Germany. 

From the artists of Cyborgue Cosmológico Ou: a colonização daquele que é anterior à construção das raças, Likidah and Amon Rá:

"The work displays the cosmic cyborg, guardian of its multiple versions. He reconstructs narratives of erasure of black identities and his focus is to reconstruct the version presented with the white mask sewn into his skin. 
In the work one can also see references to the writings of Frantz Fanon, Gilberto Freyre, the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, the mantle of Bispo do Rosário, the works of Tarsila do Amaral, the concept of Anthropophagy in Brazilian Modernism and the production of Emicida."

"The radio play “Vozes da Alvorada” (Voices of Dawn) explores Afro-Brazilian sound symbols within the political-cultural context of Brazil and black racial political mobilization in the 1920s and 1930s, especially the Frente Negra Brasileira (Brazilian Black Front), influenced by distinct political currents on the rise at the time, such as fascism, integralism and socialism. In this context, we consider the political articulations that established nationalist and modernization ideas, such as the influence of the Weimar Republic on the Brazilian Constitution of 1934, radio broadcasting, black press publications and phonographic recordings of sambas as national symbols. These points trigger historical contradictions in the country, where black people and their cultural practices are constantly co-opted in favor of the construction of Brazil's identity, although social agents are systematically excluded from its official organization.

Thus, the piece proposes to investigate ideological conflicts of the black movement in its formation at the beginning of the 20th century using sound as a technological artifact of historical and cultural memory, visiting recordings and documents in order to weave the complexity of the construction of a black identity post-abolition in search of social emancipation." - A1219 and Disco Duro

From the artist of Great Lady of Infinite Space, Christina Monique:

"The work uses digital imagery to depict the reclamation of the esoteric notions that were popular during the time of the Weimar Republic. In the center, a Black woman is depicted as a ballerina from Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus-style ballet, the Triadic Ballet, in reference to performativity and costume. She dons Perdurabo’s ceremonial hat, signifying her reclamation of the wisdom that is rightfully hers. Surrounding her are Thelemic symbols such as the unicursal hexagram, the eye of providence, and the ouroboros. The backdrop is a snapshot of the cosmos on the artist's birthday, which alludes to her return to reclaim the gnosis that had been co-opted and obscured by Eurocentric occultists. The work is meant to instigate discussion surrounding esoteric wisdom and ownership and to spur a renascent Afrofuturist esoteric consciousness."

"AfroXotica Burlesque is an energetic and sensual African drum and dance experience curated and directed by Andrea Peoples of Andrea Peoples Dance Theater in the birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans, Louisiana. This pulse-pounding show features an Afrobeats DJ set, live African drummers, electrifying group dance acts, and African-inspired showgirl and burlesque performances celebrating African spirituality and the Black feminine form. This show actively tours, sharing New Orleans’ special blend of the old and the new through inspiring lessons in dance and culture with the world. " - Andrea Peoples  

Credits: Director - Andrea Peoples, Video Director - Jasamine Pettie, Videographer - @a_1of1, Song: “Golden Ticket”  Brasstacks featuring Masego and Common
Location: Treme Market Branch New Orleans
Cast: Nylyn Oubre, Travon Moody, Yvette Jones, Kayla Forney, Jasamine Pettie, Mercedes Watson, Rhaina Foxx, Sarah Mellman, Andrea Peoples, Zulu the Artist, Big Chief David Montana, Solomon Mason of RocSolid Productions, Djembe Judah, Mz. Juno, Joie DeVivre, La Reina

The theme of Deliverance highlights the arrival of the Jazz Age, Louis Armstrong, and Josephine Baker; the cultural politics of W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, Claude McKay, and René Maran; and the intersection of African, Afro-European, and African American identities in Weimar Germany.  

"Interpretation of Paul Klee's The Angel of History." - ZiggZaggerZ
Credits: Created and Directed by ZiggZaggerZ, Videography and Editing by Ra-sōn Theus, Executive Producer Reynaldo Anderson, Music by Don Kingski, ZiggZaggerZ, Sonship Theus, ZiggZaggerZ is artist Shannon Theus.

From the artist of The Negro – Myths and Realities, Michael K. Wilson:

"Langston Hughes’ poem The Negro is a reflective narration of African heritage and African American existence. During the 1920’s, it was one of several literary works translated into German language and disseminated throughout the Weimer Republic.  The Negro- Myths and Realities utilizes collage to visually map how the expressive symbols within the poem become activated through translation and dissemination, highlighting the complex relationship between German history and people of African Descent. The collage references three publications of Hughes’ poem. The first is W.E.B. Dubois 1922 publication within the Crisis magazine, a platform challenging racial injustice through African American intellectual thought and creative expression. The second is within Georg Widenbauer’s 1923 “die schwarze Weltgefahr” (The Black Threat to the World), where the poem is used to symbolize global black revolt against the white race. The third is within Alfons Goldschmidt’s 1931 pamphlet, where the poem is used to garner German support of the Scottsboro Boys.

An archival photograph of the Scottsboro boys accompanies jazz musicians as well as African soldiers in Rhineland. Hovering over these images are racist caricatures symbolizing the perceived threat of African presence and African American culture to whites in Germany. These images overlay a map of former German colonial territories in Africa, while the poem intentionally blankets these contrasting images to give life to African presence throughout complex history. Finally, the poem is anchored by Benin bronze sculptures looted by Germany during colonization, that are currently being repatriated back to Nigeria. As a result, The Negro – Myths and Realities utilizes Hughes' poem and the Weimar Republic to connect the past with the present and the multiple geographies and narratives that shape African cultural existence." 

The theme of Descent critiques the violent atmosphere surrounding the rise of fascism and the coming 1933 Nazi seizure of power; the afterlife of German colonial African genocide, which forecast the greatest mass murder of the 20th century; and the prophetic relevance of Paul Klee’s art. 

"Hands of Darkness is a remix of Fritz Lang’s silent film, Metropolis (1927), which entered US public domain in January 2023. Made during the turbulent, final years of the Weimar period, the film was criticized for its “communist” narrative of emancipating indentured workers enslaved to the technology of the ruling class. This remix draws attention to the prescient and entwined themes of artificial intelligence and gender, familiar to us today with hallucinating chatbots Alexa and Siri. Furthering van Veen’s concept of “surreal silent cinema,” the soundtrack is a remix by Coingutter of van Veen's experiments with Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), an esoteric process of unearthing spirit from electromagnetic tape developed by B. Gysin and W. S. Burroughs." - tobias c. van Veen

From the artist of Gau tama hâ (Un-Healed), Fatima Tajah Olson:

"Remembering the 1904 genocide in Namibia committed by the German military forces, where 50,000 – 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were murdered. It was only in 2021 that Germany apologized for its role in the slaughter of Herero and Nama tribespeople in Namibia and officially described the massacre as genocide for the first time."