Denkmäler in Bewegung
Berlin-based artist Sarah Ama Duah, who transitioned from fashion to sculpture, creates works that explore Afro-German memory culture. Her practice includes beeswax portraits, found objects like Delft porcelain and baroque vases, and performances at venues such as the Humboldt Forum. In 2025, she received the Wolfram Beck Prize for Sculpture. Duah's early fashion work, including silicone garments shown at the Fashionclash Festival in Maastricht, evolved into sculptural investigations of clothing, body, and space, leading her to study performance and sculpture at the Berlin University of the Arts under Jimmy Robert.
Duah's work matters because it actively challenges Eurocentric visual hierarchies by placing Black history and knowledge in dialogue with artifacts of European 'high culture.' Her approach—using everyday objects and personal narratives to question inherited image orders—reflects a growing movement among contemporary artists to decolonize museum spaces and public memory. The Wolfram Beck Prize recognition signals institutional validation of this critical perspective, while her performances at prominent sites like the Humboldt Forum bring Afro-German perspectives into Germany's most contested cultural institutions.