Café Togo / 多哥咖啡

2018
video installation
1920 x 1080, 3 channels, 27 min on loop
ORWO 16mm B&W film transfer to HD video
by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper in cooperation with Abdel Amine Mohammed
video trailer ︎

Café Togo examines the efforts to change street names with colonial connotations in the so-called Afrikanisches Viertel (African Quarter) in Berlin-Wedding. According to Berlin’s street naming laws, every street named after a person honours that individual. Petersallee, Lüderitzstraße, and Nachtigalplatz bear the names of people whose biographies are stained with the blood of the victims of German colonialism. As per the law, streets that no longer align with today’s understanding of democracy and human rights should be renamed.

Café Togo portrays, through both documentary and fictional scenes, the visions of Black activist Abdel Amine Mohammed, who is deeply involved in the process of renaming streets with colonial associations in Berlin. His efforts reflect the perspectives of the Black community as well as civil society NGOs, whose activism aims to bring about change. He advocates for a paradigm shift in the politics of state symbols: moving away from honouring colonial perpetrators towards commemorating the victims, as well as the resistance and freedom fighters who opposed the German colonial regime. His goal is to establish a multidimensional politics of memory within postcolonial perspectives. Abdel Amine Mohammed also authored the story With Colonial Love, which, along with a reference to the Nazi propaganda film Carl Peters (1941)—which narrates the founding of German East Africa—forms the basis for Café Togo.

Installation view at Akademie der Künste Berlin in Germany, 2018

Director | Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper
Director Assistant | Antonia Cattan
Director of Cinematography | Lucas Bueno Maia
Camera Assistant | Andres Villarreal, Kojo Schneider, Pjönghwa Kim
Director of Sound | Shen Sum Sum
Mixing Engineer | Ilya Selikhov
Music | Aaron Snyder, Jimmy Trash, Igor Meiji, Shen Sum-Sum
Art Director | Viktor Bone
Costume Design | Han Le Han
Makeup Design | Louisa Gniffke
Technical Support | Kamil Markiewicz,
Tamara Magradze, Tekla Aslanishvili, Thomas Chang
Interview | Cheng An Chi
Translation | Rosanna Lovell
Performed | Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Keto Logua, Kristof Trakal, Hike,
Abdel Amine Mohammed, Musquiqui Chihying,
Yugen Yah, Han Le Han, He Ling Yu,
Aaron Snyder, Jimmy Trash, Igor Meiji

Extremely appreciate the support from
Kristina Leko, Christian Kopp, Walter Lenertz,
Institute for Art in Context, Berlin University of the Arts,
Berlin Postkolonial, Fredericks Café, SCREEN

This Film is funded by
Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government,
Interflugs, Berlin University of the Arts
Institute for Art in Context, Berlin University of the Arts

Film Festivals
17th Kurzsuechtig Short Film Festival, Leipzig, Germany, 2020
33rd Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan, 2019
3rd The Buddha International Film Festival, Pune, India, 2019
3rd International Safe Community Short Film Festival, Mashhad, Iran, 2019
7th BioBio Cine, Concepción, Chile, 2019
6th CineKasimanwa: The Western Visayas Film Festival, Iloilo City, Philippines, 2019
1st Diorama International Film Festival, New Dehli, India, 2019
3rd Chhatrapati Shivaji International Film Festival, Pune, India, 2019
3rd Busan Art Film Festival, Busan, South Korea, 2018
33rd Entrevues Belfort International Film Festival, Belfort, France, 2018
18th Short Film Days Flensburg", Flensburg, Germany, 2018
3rd Salto Independent Film Festival, Salto, Uruguay, 2018
3rd Spain Moving Images Festival, Madrid, Spain, 2018
8th iRep Filmfestival, Lagos, Nigeria, 2018
68th Berlinale - 13th Forum Expanded, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany, 2018

Screenings
WRG Sensor, Braunschweig, Germany, 2023
8th RAVY Biennale, Goethe Institut, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2023
Our Place / Taipei Platform @ Taipei Dangdai, Taipei, Taiwan, 2023
Black, A Film Festival, C-LAB - Taiwan Sound Lab, Taipei, Taiwan, 2022
Citizens in the Shade, Aliens in the Sun: Trade, Vernàcular Institute, Mexico City, Mexico, 2021
Topia Festival, Frontviews, Berlin, Germany, 2021
Territories under my skin, Changing Room, Berlin, Germany + Goethe-Institut, Windhoek, Namibia, 2021
Black Light, Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst, Berlin, Germany, 2020
Asia Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2020
Burden of Memory: Considering German Colonial History in Africa, Goethe-Institut / Sita Bella, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2019
UNSW Art & Design (University of New South Wales), Sydney, Australia, 2019
UCL, University of London - IAS Forum, London, UK, 2019
Spinning Triangles: Ignition of School of Design, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany, 2019
École des Beaux-arts (School of Fine Arts), Paris, France, 2019
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (University of Münster), Münster, Germany, 2018

Related Information ︎
︎︎︎ Berlinale
︎︎︎ Arsenal
︎︎︎ Deutschlandfunk Kultur
︎︎︎ German Documentaries

© 2024 Musquiqui Lab

Café Togo / 多 哥 咖 啡

© 2024
Musquiqui Lab

Café Togo / 多哥咖啡