Student Talk & Discussion with NADIA DENTON
5. November 2026, 14.00 Uhr Kunstuni Linz, Domgasse 1, Zeitbasiertes Wohnzimmer, 4. OG, 4020 Linz
Gespräch & Diskussion mit Nadia Denton – eine Sonderveranstaltung im Rahmen von CINÉMA AFRICAIN.
The beginnings of the German colonial enterprise from 1884 and Weimar period of 1918 – 1933 led to an increased presence of African people and African material culture in German speaking Europe. This presence came to reflect itself in the artistic output of key creative movements of the period including Dadaism, German Expressionism, Surrealism and Neue Sachlichkeit.
In this presentation, film curator and art history guide Nadia Denton will explore a selection of works by notable early 20th century German artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Hannah Hoch and Max Ernst showing how they were influenced by African material forms largely from ethnographical museum collections.
Nadia will explain how this new generation of German artist found inspiration in unexpected ways from African cultural forms such as the masquerade; and how this ancient African art form can be directly compared to modern day filmmaking.
Nadia Denton is an official African Heritage Guide across the V&A, Tate Modern and British Museum in the UK. Her ‘Igbo Worldview’ tour is the first African Heritage offering in the British Museum’s 272-year history. Earlier in 2026, the BBC profiled her Tate Modern ‘African Modernism and Afro-Surrealism tour’ across TV, radio, web and social media. She has a degree in Modern History from St. Hilda’s College, Oxford.
CINÉMA AFRICAIN!
Filmfestival Linz / 4 . bis 7. November 2026
CINÉMA AFRICAIN! returns to Linz for its third edition, bringing together bold, boundary-pushing cinema from Africa and its diaspora. From Western Sahara to Senegal, Jamaica to Mozambique, Sudan to Martinique and Haiti, this year’s program spans feature films, documentaries, and short works that trace themes of identity, resistance, migration, and the enduring bond between people, land, and sea.
Beyond the screen, this year’s POLITICS OF THE IMAGE strand opens up space for dialogue – from Nadia Denton’s talk on African Presences and German Modernist Art to What We Leave Behind, a panel discussion with this year’s festival guests exploring filmmaking, legacy and the future. The programme also features a retrospective tribute to pioneering filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, presented in collaboration with FIFTITU%.
We are also proud to announce that CINÉMA AFRICAIN! has received the Stadt der Vielfalt – Preis für Interkulturalität from the City of Linz and has been featured as a best-practice example in the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (BMWKMS) campaign Antirassismus ins Rampenlicht.
Festival venues:
Moviemento Kino, Kunstuniversität, FIFTITU%, Stadtwerkstatt and more.
zeitbasiertemedien.wordpress.com/2026/10/13/student-talk-discussion-with-nadia-denton
‘Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man and Rasha, the Black Dove’, Christian Schad (1929), Tate Modern, London