Dort wo keine Tür ist. Ein Gespräch mit Logan February

In the organizer's words:

A Yorùbá door, carved from Iroko wood in the 20th century, lies hidden in the depot of the Ethnologisches Museum - inaccessible in its materiality and meaning. As the first Poet in Residence at the Humboldt Forum, Nigerian author Logan February is confronted with a dilemma of agency: Who grants access, and who receives it? How does indigenous knowledge have an effect in this tense proximity to the object? What becomes of privacy, consent and the sacred where there is no door?

This psychedelic essay, created for Objekte Widersprechen, combines prose poems with reflections on the research process, transforming absence into adventure. Through the mysteries of a lost snake cult, the legacy of anonymous and famous master sculptors, and a spiritual perception of objects that remain hidden from the searching gaze, we go far beyond the door.

Logan February's writing performs a parallel act of carving, creating a glorious portal through words. For the poet, it is the fruit of a kind of failure, a sad triumph of imagined possibility over material loss. Across the gaps of history, poet and door connect to overwrite the omnipresent law of the museum: Please keep your distance from the objects.

Participants

Logan February is a Nigerian poet and multidisciplinary artist. February's work explores desire, psychospirituality and Afro-queer identity. February's poetry books include "In The Nude" (Ouida Poetry, 2019) and "Mental Voodoo" (Poesie Dekolonie/Engeler Verlag, 2024). The short film "Thrall" was part of the official selection at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in 2025. February received the Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature and scholarships from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program, the Berlin Senate Department for Culture, the Literaturhaus Wien and the Akademie der Künste, among others. In 2025, Logan was the February Poet-in-Residence at the Humboldt Forum. Logan is currently a fellow of the Akademie der Künste and lives in Berlin.

Priya Basil is the author and curator of the Humboldt Forum project Objects Talk Back. In her book Be My Guest / Gastfreundschaft (2019), she combines memoir, philosophy, food and politics to reflect on hospitality in the broadest sense. Her most recent book Eingeschlossen / Ausgeschlossen (2025) deals with memory culture and belonging in Germany.

She is a co-founder and board member of WIR MACHEN DAS, an NGO that works with refugees and migrants for a more inclusive society. Priya is also a member of the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She has conceived and curated projects for various institutions, including the Goethe Institute and the Berlin International Literature Festival. From 2021 to 2023, Priya was International Writer in Residence for Mindscapes, a Wellcome Trust UK project that aims to change the way we understand, talk about and treat psycho-social health. As part of this project, Priya undertook a multi-year research journey across six continents to learn about different understandings of wellbeing and healing practices. In 2024, Priya is Writer in Residence on Wellcome's next project, Climate and Health. She is currently working on a new book based on her research and travels.

• 12 EUR / reduced 6 EUR
• Language: English
• Location: Mechanical Arena in the foyer
• Part of: Objects contradict