Closing Weekend Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe

Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) presents an extensive programme from 12 to 14 June to mark the conclusion of the exhibition and research project 

Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations. From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe. The weekend opens with the European premiere of Aria Dean’s performance The Color Scheme, presented by Hartwig Art Foundation. The programme further includes keynote lectures by George Njung and Anette Hoffmann, performances by Matilda TheeGreat and Slavs and Tatars, as well as artist talks, conversations, and listening sessions with Abrie Fourie, Samia Chabani, Nischal Khadka and Mohamed-Ali Ltaief, alongside numerous additional events.

The newly published Tirailleurs Reader, featuring contributions by more than twenty international authors, artists, and researchers, expands on the exhibition’s research into the histories and legacies of colonial conscription, war, and post-war European memory, extending the project beyond the duration of the exhibition.

Aria Dean: The Color Scheme
Performance presented by Hartwig Art Foundation
Fri., 12 June, 20:00

Tickets available now at hkw.de/tickets

Performance €10 / reduced €5 

Set in Berlin’s Tiergarten shortly after the First World War, artist and writer Aria Dean’s performance The Color Scheme imagines a dialogue between two African American expatriates—the Poet and the Philosopher—as their date in the park becomes a broader meditation on the relationship between Black avant-garde aesthetics and the nascent political movements of the twentieth century.

A few steps away from what is now HKW, the original statues of Kant and Goethe offer Dean an opportunity to critically examine nationalist and imperial monuments and serve as the mise-en-scène for the characters’ date. Loosely inspired by a real encounter between philosopher Alain Locke and poet Claude McKay, Dean avoids heroization by presenting characters without name and operationalizes them as figures through which to explore the clash of political and aesthetic perspectives. Their disagreements—over nationalism, the function of art, and the political and economic transformations required for life to become liveable—contrast the monumental historical ambitions of Tiergarten. In the 1920s, the park served as a backdrop to Prussian imperial narratives, even as its grounds were a meeting place for Berlin’s sexually diverse social scene. History’s tensions are further heightened by the presence of a rendered version of the Siegesallee, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s boulevard adorned with monarchical sculptures, later moved by the Nazis to grant space for large military parades, and finally dismantled completely after the war. Dean 3D-scanned the remaining ruptured statues, which are currently located at the Zitadelle Spandau, for production designer Filip Kostic’s digital reconstruction of the park as it was in 1923.

Accompanied by a score by composer Evan Zierk, featuring Intonarumori, the experimental noise machines invented by the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo, the result is a theatrical space where history, form, and speculation converge. The theatre stage doubles as a film set: The actors are captured in real time within the virtual Tiergarten landscape, while the film is simultaneously projected live onto the stage, binding the present to a historical frame in which the ‘truth’ of the encounter resolves as image. Far from a picture-perfect representation, The Color Scheme explodes history’s debris cluttering up the here-and-now.

Commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation and Performa, the piece is premiered in the European context near its original setting, the historical Siegesallee, and is presented as part of the closing weekend of the exhibition Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations. From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe at HKW.

Accreditation at: presse@hkw.de
Press photos: hkw.de/pressphotos

More information: hkw.de/en/AriaDean

Programme
Free entry, unless otherwise indicated.

Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations: From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe
Exhibition and Research Project
until 14 June
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00 
€8/6, free admission on Mondays and during the closing weekend

Fri., 12.6.
12:00–19:00
Wùn Ná Kre
AI (Ancestral Immediacies) × Tirailleurs
Exhibition

15:00–18:00
Conversations on Art
With Daniela Fernández Rodríguez 
In English/Spanish

20:00
Aria Dean: The Color Scheme
Performance
€10/5

Sat., 13.6.
12:00–19:00
Wùn Ná Kre
AI (Ancestral Immediacies) × Tirailleurs
Exhibition

13:00
Cornwallis Cloth | Cabascabo
Films
Walk-in Cinema

14:00–15:00
A Walk Through the Exhibition with… Paz Guevara and Samia Chabani (Ancrages, Marseille)
Focus on Thematic Resonances 
In English 

15:00
Indochine. Sur les traces d'une mère (Indochina: Traces of a Mother)
Film
Walk-in Cinema

15:00–16:00
Where the Tirailleurs’ Stories Meet
With Samia Chabani (Ancrages, Marseille), moderated by Paz Guevara and Chang Qu
In English

15:00–18:00
Conversations on Art
With Vivien Anderson 
In German/English

16:30–18:00 
Violent Encounters: Rethinking War Experiences through the Prism of Gender 
George Njung, Introduction by Qu Chang 
Keynote
In English

17:00
Indigènes (Days of Glory)
Film
Walk-in Cinema

18:00–19:00
Mesdames Tirailleurs
With Matilda TheeGreat, Introduction by Dzekashu MacViban
Poetry Performance

19:00–20:00
I Utter Other (2014-)
Slavs and Tatars
Lecture Performance
In English

Sun., 14.6.
12:00–19:00
Childcare
Meeting Point: Counter in the Sylvia Wynter Foyer

12:00–13:00
A Walk Through the Exhibition with… Paz Guevara and Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
In English

12:00–19:00
Wùn Ná Kre
AI (Ancestral Immediacies) × Tirailleurs
Exhibition

13:00
Wings of Takasago Giyutai
Film
Walk-in Cinema

13:00–14:00
Artist Talk: How to Document the Geotrauma of War? 
With Abrie Fourie, moderated by Eric Otieno Sumba
In English

14:00–15:30
Knowing by Ear: Listening to Acoustic Traces of Tirailleurs in Berlin
Anette Hoffmann
Keynote Lecture
In English

15:00
Emitaï
Film
Walk-in Cinema

15:00–17:00
Kids’ Disco
Special with Kinder-Rave

15:30–17:00
Where the Tirailleurs’ Stories are Heard 
With Nischal Khadka and Mohamed-Ali Ltaief
Listening Sessions
In English

17:00
J'ai tant aimé (I loved so much)
Film 
Walk-in Cinema

17:00–19:00
Music Station: The World Belongs to All of Us ... Stand Up ... Listen, Listen Carefully
Playlist

Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations Reader
Published HKW and Archive Books

Available now at bookstores, the HKW shop, and the webshop

The Tirailleurs Reader retraces the history of the so-called Tirailleurs — troops conscripted from French colonies to fight in Europe’s wars since the late nineteenth century. With the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Nazis, the blanchiment (whitening) campaign of Charles de Gaulle’s government pushed the valiant contributions of these soldiers to the outer margins of post-war European history. Expanding on the contested term beyond its specific use in the French colonial context, the Tirailleurs Reader explores the wider histories of conscription and recruitment of foreign, often colonized soldiers for faraway wars as an ongoing social and political phenomenon. It examines its legacy amid current reappraisals of previously unimpeachable post-war narratives.

With contributions by: Jonathan Ali, Ṣadaq Berreshīd, Léon-Gontran Damas, Bakary Diallo, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Mounir Hentati, Britta Lange, Boniface Mongo-Mboussa, Alia Mossallam, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Olga Schubert, Lamine Senghor, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Slavs and Tatars, Matthew J. Smith, Eric Otieno Sumba, Can Sungu, Vanessa E. Thompson, Chương-Đài Võ, Salah Yousif

Information
Published by: Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and Archive Books, Berlin, 2026
Languages: German and English editions
circa 232 pages, softcover, 40 images
Price: €21

Partner

Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations is part of heimaten, supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media due to a ruling of the German Bundestag. 

Funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / bpb). With the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – French Delegation as part of the partnerships designed to support the Portuguese artistic scene in European institutions. With the generous support of the Tanoto Art Foundation (TAF). 

The Color Scheme is presented by Hartwig Art Foundation at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Co-commissioned by Performa and Hartwig Art Foundation for Performa 2025.

Media Partners: Monopol Magazin, tipBerlin

Visiting Information

Opening Times
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00

Free admission on Mondays and selected Sundays.  
Extended opening hours during evening programmes.
Current information about visiting and accessibility.

Childcare
HKW offers free childcare for many of its programmes. For further information visit hkw.de.

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Restaurant
Weltwirtschaft restaurant is open daily from 12:00. 

Contact

Maxie Fischer 
Head of Press and Communications 
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) 
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 10557 
Berlin 
T: + 49 (0) 30 397 87 413 
presse@hkw.de