“Human dignity shall be inviolable”

Text: Corina Niebuhr

The Federal Republic of Germany was founded when the Basic Law was ceremoniously proclaimed on 23 May 1949. Ever since, the right of assembly, freedom of expression and the right to physical integrity have been firmly enshrined in the country’s constitution as fundamental rights of freedom and equality that people have vis-à-vis the state. To mark the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law last year, the Art Council of the German Bundestag initiated the project “Us. 19 fundamental rights. 19 artistic positions. One dialogue space”, an exhib­ition that is on show at the Marie-Elisabeth Lüders Building in Berlin until June 2026.

19 German and international artists, including three former fellows of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Program, each addressed one article of the Basic Law, resulting in a diverse array of personal works, collages, sculptures, paintings, installations, prints and photographs.

The Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo reflects on the most important article of the Basic Law, Article  1: “Human dignity shall be inviolable”. Entitled “Kwariri Nyoko Kevako: Echoes of the Matriarchs”, her work explores the brutality of colonial rule in German South West Africa around 1900. She stitched five canvases together to create a huge symbolic land map of Namibia. On it, she embroidered fine lines that trace the railways used by the German colonial rulers – whose construction cost thousands of contract workers their lives. A thin red line marks the border that the Germans drew between North and South Namibia. It tore apart ethnic groups, tribes and families, explains the artist. “To this day, the geographical division imposed at that time continues to lead to hostility and a lack of any sense of community for the land as a whole.”

Tuli Mekondjo was a fellow of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Program from 2022 to 2023. “My stay in the city enabled me to connect with people from all over the world and forge contacts with museums. I was even able to visit the storerooms of the Ethnological Museum (Ethnologisches Museum) – I would never have been granted such access without the programme.” She says it was a big honour to be asked to create an artwork relating to Article 1 of the Basic Law. “We carry within us a trauma that has been passed down from generation to gener­ation and are still often perceived as less important. Yet we have the right to occupy space, ask questions, demand restitution. Bit by bit, we are reclaiming our dignity and that of our ancestors.”

In her work, Tuli Mekondjo has inserted archive photographs of women taken during the colonial era between the embroidered lines. In doing so, she brings them into the here and now, pays tribute to them and challenges established narratives. “The women of Namibia have preserved their culture, traditions and fertility in the midst of suffering and death,” explains Tuli Mekondjo. “Their voices will accompany us forever, like an echo.”

The Polish Romany artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, likewise a fellow of the Artists-in-Berlin Program from 2022 to 2023, also engages with her culture, its lifeworlds and the persecution and violence to which it has been subjected historically. For decades, she has been campaigning for the rights of Romany people. For the exhibition, she created a painting on fabric entitled “Zilli Schmidt. Every Day Is #ROMADAY” to illustrate Article 6: “Marriage and family shall enjoy the special protection of the state”. It is an almost life-size depiction of an older woman sitting in an armchair.

A little background information reveals why an individual should represent the topic of family: Zilli Schmidt was born to Catholic parents in the German state of Thuringia in 1924. Being Sinti, how­ever, the family was considered “racially inferior” by the Nazis. All of them were gassed in Auschwitz – only Zilli Schmidt survived. Later, she remembered what had happened: “My child, my parents, my sister with her six children. The seventh, a baby, had been sent on to her from Eger, like a parcel. The boy died immediately on arrival; he was ten months old.”

Mirga-Tas sees Zilli Schmidt’s fate as represen­tative of the genocide perpetrated against the Sinti and Roma during the Nazi era. The title of her artwork is a reference to ROMADAY, an alliance founded in 2015 to demonstrate solidarity with Europe’s largest minority group and take a stand against ­antigypsyism.

Boris Mikhailov, a Ukrainian who was an ­Artist-in-Berlin Program fellow from 1996 to 1997, is considered one of the leading documentary photographers of (post-)Soviet daily life – provocative, experimental and fearless. For the exhibition, he contributed an untitled digital photocollage that ­explores the theme of Article 19 of the Basic Law, which stipulates that the state is prohibited from ­altering basic rights.

“Ultimately, it’s always about freedom and hope.”

Boris Mikhailov

Mikhailov’s image captures a spectacular moment: a white dove being attacked in flight by a black crow. This actually happened at St Peter’s Square in 2014, when the Pope had called for peace in crisis-ridden Ukraine. When he then released white doves into the air, the crow instantly attacked.

“It was like a bad omen for us all,” recalls Boris Mikhailov. He had taken photos of the pictures broadcast on television. Ten years later, he used the deeply symbolic image and combined it with photos of a paraglider – the embodiment of personal freedom. Mikhailov comments: “Life and freedom are the inviolable rights of every person. Laws should serve not as a cage but should instead allow flight. Anything that hinders free flight must be condemned. The paraglider and the dove that managed to escape are free to rise up into the air. Ultimately, it’s always about freedom and hope.” ―

Learn more about Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo and her contribution to the exhibition project in our video.