Porcelain magic sound vs. colonialism

For Dorsa Eidizadeh, bells are not just pretty generators of sweet melodies, but symbols of the trivialisation and repression of unpleasant periods in history. And since the Iranian artist also admires Shakespeare, she titled her HfK graduation project in 2024, a “Performance and Two-Part Installation, Consisting of 30 Bells on Metal Structures and Graffiti on 10 Prints,” as a master student under Prof. Andree Korpys and Prof. Markus Löffler, with this quote: “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Thus, the witches in “Macbeth” announce the arrival of evil, the murderous title character. But what kind of evil could make bells ring?

In the current exhibition at the Städtische Galerie, Eidizadeh fleshes out the backstory. Once again, she displays 30 porcelain bells on metal structures with an artificial patina, using another quote by the witches from “Macbeth” as they famously muse on the reversals between good and evil: “Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air.” For this installation, she was awarded the 48th Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst. The prize is presented by the Senator for Culture and is endowed with €6,000. In addition, there is a grant of €3,000 for an individual catalog and a subsequent solo exhibition at the Städtische Galerie.

The artist explored the chime of the carillon on Böttcherstraße. According to the gallery, Dorsa Eidizadeh opens up sensual, haptic, and poetic approaches to the question of where colonial structures manifest themselves in our city and in our society, and how we can deal with them if we actually want to change these unreflected continuities. But what does that mean exactly?

From April 1 to December 31, every hour on the hour between 12 noon and 6 p.m., tourists in particular gather on Böttcherstraße to listen to the ringing of the Meissen porcelain bells that the artist recreated for her work. But in the exhibition, they are silent. The sound is piped in from an audio file. The music is superimposed. Just as the cute soundscape of folk and sea shanties in the original between two gables above the “Atlantis” cinema tinkles over the history of the street. And this had been the case since 1934.

In 1902, Ludwig Roselius (1874-1943) purchased a dilapidated office building on Böttcherstraße and subsequently converted into a prestigious corporate showcase for the products of his company Kaffee-HAG, as well as into an ambitious, work of art, an Expressionist “Gesamtkunstwerk”. For Roselius, it was an attempt to “think German” and an expression of “awakening a new and greater era for Germany.” Roselius was a nationalist-minded Nazi acolyte, a follower of Germanic mythology, and a promoter of colonial revisionism. Many Bremen merchants actively supported him in his efforts to recapture and continue the exploitation of Germany´s former colonies, which had been taken from the country by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. In 1940, Roselius also opened a museum on Böttcherstraße (destroyed in World War II) with the purpose of promoting the return of the colonies. It was named after Adolf Lüderitz, who had colonised Namibia. Roselius realised all of this with the money he had amassed from trading coffee, a colonial commodity.

Colonial historical symbolism can also be found in the wooden panels designed by Bernhard Hoetger, which rotate in a tower to the sound of carillon music. They depict “conquerors of oceans” such as Christopher Columbus, the initiator of a genocide. It is precisely these traces of the past beneath Bremen´s beautiful facade and the ways she is tackling them, that make Dorsa Eidizadeh's work so appealing.

“Thirty white, finely crafted porcelain bells are displayed in an architectural installation in the exhibition space of the Städtische Galerie Bremen. Like a traditional carillon, sequences of short melodies ring out at regular intervals. Seemingly these emanate from the bells—but in actuality, the music is piped in from an audio track. The bells thus become objects charged with meanings that evoke spaces of association through the acoustic signals. An accompanying text points to dissonances of perception in the familiar.

The connection to the famous carillon on Böttcherstraße is explained. In it, the artist addresses overpowering narratives of the past that have emerged in this highly touristic location in the city with an architecture born from colonial wealth. The work is particularly compelling as it conveys a powerful and complex message through its model-like structure, while it achieves its own, free, and powerful form. The articulation of ritualised spaces through sound and the possibility of liberation from rigid, linear patterns of interpretations of the past evoked in the work create a powerful image of open dialogue.”

The winner of the Bremer Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst is always selected in a two-stage process. From all incoming applications, a regional nomination committee first selects the candidates for an exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Bremen. In 2025, twelve artists were nominated from a total of 33 submissions: Elfin Açar, Franca Brockmann, Dorsa Eidizadeh, Johannes Fiola, Atsushi Mannami, Shoji Matsumoto, Ludger N.o.kel, Renen, Yoriko Seto, Hassan Sheidaei, Behshad Tajammol, and Carlotta von Haebler. A supra-regional jury then selects the winners from among them. In 2025, the panel consisted of: Dr. Katrin Hippel (Museum Kunst der Westküste, Alkersum, Föhr), Prof. Heike Mutter (artist, Hamburg University of Fine Arts), Junia Thiede (Kunstverein Braunschweig), Dr. Julia Wallner (Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck) and Dr. Linda Walther (Museumszentrum Quadrat Bottrop).

Location: Städtische Galerie Bremen, Buntentorsteinweg 112. 

Exhibition runs until April 27, 2025. 

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

Admission is free.

The venue has limited wheelchair access.