Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson
11/14/2025 – 1/25/2026
Artists: James Gregory Atkinson, Leila Bencharnia, Sonya Clark, Andrii Dostliev & Lia Dostlieva, Ângela Ferreira, Masimba Hwati, patricia kaersenhout, Ariel Orah, Kirsten Reese, Matana Roberts, Dread Scott, Katharina Warda
© Stoodio
About the Exhibition
- Location:
Hanseatenweg - Date:
11/14/2025 – 1/25/2026 - Time:
2 – 7 PM - Price:EUR 10 (Reduced: EUR 7)
- Cooperation(s):
University of the Western Cape ,Centre for Humanities Research ,Haus für Poesie - Languages: German, English
- Save appointment
Opening Hours
Tue–Fri, 2–7 pm
Sat, Sun, Public Holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Closed 24 and 31 DecFree admission for under 18s, Tuesdays
Combined Ticket with “Out of the Box – 75 Years of the Archives of the Akademie der Künste” € 17/12
Free admission for school classes and student groups with accompanying teachers
Opening: Thur, 13 Nov, 7 pm
With Manos Tsangaris (President of the Akademie der Künste), Johanna M. Keller (Head of Programming, Akademie der Künste) and Tomke Braun (Assistant to the Head of Programming) – Project Directors and Co-curators, Maurits van Bever Donker and Aidan Erasmus (University of the Western Cape), Lina Brion and Anujah Fernando (Artistic Directors)
Performances and Activations: Masimba Hwati, Ariel Orah, Matana Roberts
DJ set: Robert Machiri
Free admissionFestival: Fri–Sat, 23–24 Jan
Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson (1895–1965) and Paul Robeson (1898–1976) were two exceptional figures of the 20th century. Their political and artistic work was an expression of a way of thinking that understood the world in relation, and of uncompromising resistance to all forms of oppression. The exhibition and festival project “Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson” by the Akademie der Künste is dedicated to their lived practice and its relevance for today. In dialogue with materials from the Paul Robeson Archive, twelve artistic positions – in sound and spatial installations, video works, sculptures, collages and photographs – negotiate questions of solidarity, collective freedom and mutual responsibility.
The Paul Robeson Archive was founded 60 years ago at the former Akademie der Künste (East) in Berlin. The extensive collection provides an insight into the life and work of Paul Robeson – African-American singer, actor, lawyer and activist – and that of the author, anthropologist, UN correspondent, artist manager and political intellectual Eslanda Goode Robeson. The couple linked the anti-racist struggle in the USA with anti-colonial movements in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, international workers’ struggles in the spirit of socialist internationalism, and anti-fascist freedom struggles in Europe – such as the Spanish Civil War. The title of the exhibition refers to the latter: a quote from Paul Robeson’s speech at the Royal Albert Hall in 1937 in solidarity with the International Brigades, in which he called for a clear stance against fascism.
The artistic works focus on the actualisation of these resistant and relational practices, the role of voice, sound and body, and the questioning of geopolitical constellations between anti-colonial liberation movements and the Cold War. The ideas of international solidarity and universal humanity negotiated therein form the thematic space of resonance in which contemporary artistic works enter into dialogue with the archival materials.
Project Directors and Co-curation: Johanna M. Keller, Tomke Braun
Artistic Directors: Lina Brion, Anujah Fernando
Curatorial Advisors: Ibou Diop, Aidan Erasmus, Julia Gerlach, Baruch Gottlieb
“Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson” is a project by the Akademie der Künste in collaboration with the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, and the Haus für Poesie, Berlin.
In cooperation with
Radio compositions co-produced with
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Eslanda Robeson speaking at the mass rally for the "International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Fascism and the Day of Struggle against Fascism and Imperialist Wars" held at Bebelplatz in Berlin, GDR, 13 September 1959
© Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul Robeson Archive; Photo: Erich Zühlsdorf and Horst Sturm / Zentralbild
Paul Robeson in front of Humboldt University after receiving an honorary doctorate, Berlin, GDR, 5 October 1960
© Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul Robeson Archive; Photo: Horst Sturm / Zentralbild
Demonstration with banner “Let Paul Robeson Sing“, Manchester, c. 1956
© Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul Robeson Archive; Photographer unknown
Dread Scott, Slave Rebellion Reenactment, 2020 (still 1). Performance photography, archive-compliant inkjet prints, framed, 54.5 x 80 x 4 cm. Courtesy of Dread Scott and NOME, Berlin
© Dread Scott
Sonya Clark, We Are, 2023 (film still). Video, 19:47 min. Choreography and performance: Jennifer Harge, Directed by Jeremy Brockman
© Sonya Clark; film still © Jeremy Brockman
James Gregory Atkinson, Zwischen den Kontinenten, 2023 (part of the installation Sohn/Bruder/Vater/Liebhaber/Freund, 2023, board 3). Pinboard with photographs, documents, magazines, books, and diverse materials, 150 x 200 cm. Exhibition view WER WIR SIND. Fragen an ein Einwanderungsland, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (25 May – 8 October 2023). Courtesy of James Gregory Atkinson
© James Gregory Atkinson, photo: © Jens Gerber
patricia kaersenhout, Eslanda Robeson, 2025 (part of the installation Presidents of the United States of Love, 2025). Digital print on cotton, with beads, feed bags, glitter, felt, African wax fabrics, ribbons, 119 x 125 cm. Courtesy patricia kaersenhout and AKINCI, Amsterdam
© patricia kaersenhout, photo: © 2025 Aatjan Renders
Masimba Hwati, Cosmogram of Struggle, 2025 (detail). Hanging sculpture made from a cowhide drum and a map, 100 x 100 x 25 cm
© Masimba Hwati, photo: © Mukundi Mutasa
Publication
Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson
