Café Togo

Forum Expanded Exhibition 2018

Café Togo looks at 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 law, every street named after a person honors that person. Petersallee, Lüderitzstraße, and Nachtigalplatz bear the names of persons whose biographies are tainted by the blood of the victims of German colonialism. According to the law, streets that do not correspond to today’s understanding of democracy and human rights should be renamed. Café Togo follows the visions of the Black activist Abdel Amine Mohammed, who is working for a paradigm shift in the politics of state symbols: away from honoring colonial criminals, toward commemorating the victims and the resistance and freedom fighters of the German colonial regime. His goal: a multidimensional politics of memory within postcolonial perspectives. Abdel Amine Mohammed therefore wrote the story “With Colonial Love.” It is this story, along with a reference to the NS propaganda film Carl Peters (1941), which narrates the founding of German East Africa, that forms the basis for Café Togo.

by Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper
with Abdel Amine Mohammed, Hike, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Keto Logua, Kristof Trakal, Yugen Yah, Musquiqui Chihying, Aaron Snyder, Jimmy Trash, Igor Meiji, Han Le Han, Ling Yu He Germany / Taiwan 2016 English, German 27’ Black/White World premiere

With

Abdel Amine Mohammed (Amine & Street Lecturer)
Hike (Hike & Ramasan)
Dietrich Kuhlbrodt (Gustav Nachtigal)
Keto Logua (Adolf Lüderitz)
Kristof Trakal (Carl Peters)
Yugen Yah (Samurai)
Musquiqui Chihying (Chih)
Aaron Snyder (Musician)
Jimmy Trash (Musician)
Igor Meiji (Musician)
Han Le Han (Waitress)
Ling Yu He (Waitress)

Crew

Directors	Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper
Screenplay	Gregor Kasper
Cinematography	Lucas Bueno Maia
Editing	Musquiqui Chihying
Music	Aaron Snyder, Jimmy Trash, Igor Meiji, Sum-Sum Shen
Sound Design	Sum-Sum Shen
Sound	Sum-Sum Shen
Production Design	Victor Bone
Costumes	Han Le Han
Make-Up	Louisa Gniffke
Assistant Director	Antonia Cattan
Production Management	Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper
Producer	Musquiqui Chihying

Produced by

Musquiqui Lab.

Musquiqui Chihying

Musquiqui Chihying is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Taipei and Berlin. Specializing in the use of multimedia such as film and sound, he investigates the human condition and environmental system in the age of global capitalization and engages in the inquiry of and research on issues of subjectivity in contemporary social culture in the Global South. His works have been shown in several international institutions and film festivals, such as Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Centre Pompidou, Paris, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Taipei Biennial, and the 10th Shanghai Biennale. He is a member of the Taiwanese art group Fuxinghen Studio and the founder of the Research Lab of Image and Sound. His 3-channel-installation Café Togo (co-director: Gregor Kaspar) was shown at the Forum Expanded exhibition in 2018.

Filmography

2018 Café Togo; with Gregor Kasper, 27 min., Forum Expanded 2018 2019 The Guestbook; 15 min. 2020 The Sculpture; 28 min. 2021 The Lighting

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022

Gregor Kasper

Gregor Kasper,  born in 1986 in Germany, is an artist and filmmaker based in Berlin. He studied painting at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and is currently completing his MA Art in Context at Berlin University of the Arts.

Filmography

2018 Café Togo

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018