The Guestbook / 留言本

2019
video installation
1920 x 1080, single channel, 15 min on loop
by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper
work commissioned by Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

The Guestbook of the eponymous film bears the messages from German researchers, officials, and explorers during the era of the German colony of Togoland, now the Republic of Togo. The film follows a Togolese youth as he journeys to three symbolically significant locations in Berlin: the Berlin State Library, where an archive holds an old guestbook from a long-abandoned colonial station in Togo; Treptower Park, where the jazz musician Kwassi Bruce was once displayed in a human zoo during the first German Colonial Exhibition; and a Chinese massage parlour, previously the site of 'Nanjing,' one of Berlin’s earliest Chinese restaurants and a popular gathering place for Chinese international students and communists in the 1920s. By revisiting this significant period, the film The Guestbook seeks to construct an alternative historical narrative, aiming to understand and refocus the overlooked historical fragments that may have shaped the current international political landscape.

Installation view at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China in 2018

Director | Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper
Screenplay | Alice Escher
Director of Cinematography | Lucas Bueno Maia
Camera Assistant | Andres Villarreal
Director of Sound | Shen Sum-Sum
Mixing Engineer | Ilya Selikhov
Music | Daniel Ruiza, Shanti Suki Osman, Shen Sum-Sum, Ilya Selikhov
Technical Support | Ýsmaýl Karayakupoglu
Performed | Satchivi Komla Edoh (DoDo), Gu Xiao Quin (Xiaoquin), Daniel Ruiza (Kwassi)
Produced | xīzhuāng culture & media GbR
Commissioned by Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

Related Information ︎
︎︎︎ Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
︎︎︎ KADIST
︎︎︎ Art Asia Pacific
︎︎︎ Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

© 2024 Musquiqui Lab

The Guestbook / 留 言 本

© 2024
Musquiqui Lab

The Guestbook / 留言本