Beyond Tropaganda: Performances on Colonial Afterlives
Beyond Tropaganda: Performances on Colonial Afterlives
22 August 12.00-17.00
In conjunction with the exhibition Beyond Tropaganda, curated by Mathias Danbolt and Jeannette Ehlers and on view at 2112 Copenhagen from 21 August through 17 October 2026, 2112 and Mathias Danbolt/Moving Monuments are pleased to present an ambitious performance and talks programme, including a one-day event Beyond Tropaganda: Performances on Colonial Afterlives at the historic former Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Harsdorff’s Hus in Copenhagen. The programme is curated by Mathias Danbolt and talks programme is generously supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation.
Agenda 22/8
12.00: Introduction by Mathias Danbolt & Jeannette Ehlers
12.10: Performance by Alma Akua and Michael Dumfeh
12.25: Performance by Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld: The Christmas Report & Other Fragments
13.00-13.45: Performances of Colonial Afterlife: Panel Conversation with David A. Berg, Alma Akua, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Jeannette Ehlers, moderated by Mathias Danbolt.
13.45-14.15: Coffee Break
14.15: Justin F. Kennedy: Albertazina: A Sci-Fi Opera
15.00: David A. Berg: Moko Jumbie Performance (outside)
15.30: Voices in the Shadow of Monuments: Tribute to Gerville Larsen, Sum more dahn uddahs (2016) outside Det Gule Palæ, Amaliegade 18.
16.00: Reception at 2112, Holbergsgade 20.
About the programme:
The programme takes place in a building deeply connected to Denmark’s colonial history. It was here that the agreement concerning the 1917 transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States was signed. By returning contemporary artistic practices to this historically charged site, the programme opens new artistic perspectives on histories that continue to shape the present.
The programme premieres Justin F. Kennedy’s newly performance Albertazine: A Speculative Opera, created specifically for Beyond Tropaganda. Developed as a site-specific performance, the sci-fi opera centres on Alberta Viola Roberts, who was brought from the former Danish West Indies colony to Copenhagen as a four-year-old to be exhibited at the Colonial Exhibition in Tivoli in 1905. She never returned to the Virgin Islands, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 15 and was buried in Copenhagen on 31 March, 1917—the very day Denmark transferred its Caribbean colony to the United States. Combining speculative fiction, music, performance and archival research, Kennedy transforms her story into an act of remembrance that bridges Danish and Virgin Islands histories through a queer and speculative lens.
Alongside Kennedy’s new commission, the programme also features performances by Alma Akua, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, a Moko Jumbie stilt performance by David Berg, a performative city walk with Voices in the Shadows of Monuments (Barly Tshibanda, Nanna Elvin Hansen, Jupiter Child, Sirí Paulsen, and Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld) as well as a conversation between the contributors and Mathias Danbolt and Jeannette Ehlerscreate new encounters between artists from the US Virgin Islands, Ghana, and Denmark, extending the exhibition’s exploration of colonial histories through live artistic practices.
Image credit: Albertazine magic wand: Alberta / Viola Roberts 1908 Photo: Copenhagen Museum