Lecture by Miriam Bettin: On Mining, Matter, and Memory

Karimah Ashadu’s filmic works explore the intertwining of labor, the body, and identity in the context of capitalist, patriarchal, and postcolonial power structures in Nigeria. The focus is on male-dominated occupational fields, as well as the economic structures and social conditions that continue to shape labor to this day.
The lecture focuses on Plateau (2021–22), in which Ashadu portrays tin miners working in the informal sector on the Jos Plateau. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the region has been industrially exploited under British colonial rule—its land, mineral resources, and labor force. This phase came to an end with the collapse of the tin market and the expiration of the International Tin Agreement in 1985. Today, workers extract the remaining tin and columbite deposits using simple, predominantly manual methods. Ashadu portrays this work as both precarious and dangerous, as well as a practice of reappropriation and self-determination.
The lecture ties in with the exhibition Glückauf! On Mining, Matter, and Memory at the Mönchehaus Museum in Goslar (2026). The exhibition places the thousand-year history of mining in the Harz Mountains and the closure of the Rammelsberg in 1988 in dialogue with international artistic perspectives on extraction, labor, identity, and memory, including Ashadu’s take on Nigerian tin mining after 1985.

Miriam Bettin is a curator and writer. Since September 2025, she has been the director of the Mönchehaus Museum in Goslar. Her curatorial practice creates space for queer-feminist and decolonial perspectives. In Goslar, she most recently realized exhibitions by Evan Ifekoya and Frances Scholz, as well as Glückauf! On Mining, Matter, and Memory, featuring works by, among others, Karimah Ashadu, donna Kukama, William Kentridge and Helena Uambembe. In autumn 2026, exhibitions by Kaiserring recipient Gabriele Stötzer and Kaiserring scholarship recipient Mona Filleul will follow. Previously, she curated exhibitions at Museum Folkwang in Essen and in the context of the Venice Architecture Biennale, worked independently with the Düsseldorf Art Commission, and was a fellow at the G.A.S. Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria. Previous positions include the Kölnischer Kunstverein and Kunstverein Braunschweig.