With questions and answers on postcolonialism, art in Namibia and the global scene

In your opinion and the way you work, how would you categorize the postcolonial situation in Namibia; with relation to art and the globalisation?

It is very clear that globalisation moves at a more rapid speed. Money,people,ideas and exchange of cultures is intertwine largely given thanks to the enourmous development of the information technology. However also these processes of movement is also dictated by political,economical and cultural power, mostly from the North to the South. In the case of Namibia, a perculiar situation took place. Perhaps best describe by Frantz Fanon in his book" The wretched of the Earth "  The middle class that particiapted in the war for liberation struggle has simply step into the shoes of the elite, therefore widening the gap between the elite, middle class and the working class. But only having the most part of the political power, their also assumed the role of responsibility on behalf of the majority of the population with the few of the whites, who controlled a large sector of the economy. And yes their still do. Boiling over to the art, which directly is linked within this set up. Therefor one finds a majority of black artists still struggling to talk about identity, postcolonialism and globalisation from an critical standpoint. Because commercially from within the Namibian situation, economically their deemed to fail, for the very same people who invest are mostly white foreigners. In my own work these issues are touched upon in a very subtle way since I find myself quite privilige to understand these problematics from a distant standpoint,however it does not present me as an expert on these issues. It's simply a voyage to understand my own relation to the situation.

In the west the general assumptions that artists with foreign backgrounds are considered as exotic, fresh or wild. Do you think this generalisation contributes to an divided view of experience when relating to works by non-western artists?

Despite all the technological advances, you still have a society influence by it's history and relation to the world. In this case the idea of exoticism is clearly fundamental within the western mind when dealing with the unfamiliar, especially now since the unfamiliar is more often at the door step of western progress. Whether this generalisation creates an divided view of experience is no doubt. It's simply a mechnanism to hold power of definition and diminish the hope for changing the course of history-not only in art but the universal history. It could also be interpret as a question of fear, because if the minority of the world holds so much power almost on all levels of humanity, then one has to deal with the paranoia of western civilization.

You mention the paranoia of western civillization, could you elaborate more what the paranoia is about?

I think the west is more often at cross-roads than before. If you study close at problematics that arose in the last 20 years especially in Europe and America. The collapse of financial markets and the recessions that follow up which influence the job market and the rise of nihihlism in all sectors of the society-including the art. The question of islam and the threat to western values on democracy and freedom of speech. Also the hysteria of terrorism and fear that has become now a frequent word within western discussion-thanks to politicians. With all these issues the grip on power slowly fades away from western hegemony on economy,politics and so forth. There is enough reason to deal with paranoia and the best preventive manner is to influence the majority of the world through strict regualtions using institutional organs such as the World Bank, IMF, United Nations etc to tied the world into a constant state of hostility especially in the third world.