Dierk Schmidt's 'Division of the Earth' Publication Concludes Project on Colonial Law

The publication 'Division of the Earth' marks the completion of Berlin-based artist Dierk Schmidt's five-year project (2005-2010) examining Germany's colonization of Namibia and its ongoing repercussions. The book documents two painting series and an extensive program of lectures, workshops, and seminars involving students, artists, art historians, historians, lawyers, and activists. It focuses on the interconnection between international law and colonization, particularly the 1885 General Act of the Berlin Africa Conference, which authorized the partitioning of African land among European empires. The project emerged from the 2004 'Anticolonial Africa Conference' in Berlin, which marked 120 years since the Berlin Africa Conference and 100 years since the German colonial army's genocide against the Nama and Herero people (1904-1907). The publication explores the Herero People's Reparations Corporation's (HPRC) legal case against Terex Corporation, Deutsche Bank, and Woermann/Deutsche-Afrika-Linien for colonial crimes, which has been unsuccessful due to jurisdictional issues. Schmidt's tableaux use geometric forms to aestheticize the language of international law, mirroring bureaucratic systems of control. The project originated with an exhibition at Salzburger Kunstverein in 2005, followed by a collaboration with Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lüneburg (KLUL) from 2006, and a second painting series shown at documenta 12 in 2007 and KLUL in 2007/08.