Artists question the UN

Have the UN's peace missions to Africa failed? In a Berlin exhibition called "united nations revisited" artists from around the world have come together to give their opinion. Here, Congolese artist Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo confronts visitors with raw meat attached to his body. It's meant to symbolise the destruction caused in his country.

Bondo has long been a vocal critic of the UN mission to his country. In the Berlin exhibition, he presents his own performances, where he aims to draw attention to the problems he notices with the international peace missions in his country. UN troops in the east of Congo are not furthering the peace process, says Bondo.

In Kinshasa, Bondo drapes Western consumer goods over his body in an artistic performance that protests against the West plundering his country's natural resources and local poverty. "I show how a people is monopolized, manipulated, incapacitated and robbed of its options," says the artist.

A copy of Per Krohg's painting in the UN security council in New York, at an artist's workshop in Congo. Locals were invited to comment on the artwork and demonstrate how it made them feel.

The painting shows the assembly hall of the UN Security Council in New York. In 1952, Norway presented the painting by Per Krogh to the UN as a gift. The depiction of various individuals stirred up controversy, with Africans feeling particularly discriminated against.

German artist Alfred Banze travelled around the world for two years with a copy of the controversial UN painting. Here in DR Congo, he asked the people what they thought of the artwork requesting artists, students and passersby to capture their impressions on video. Many of them were critical of the UN missions to their regions.

With his installation "Genocide Monument" Ghanaian artist Kofi Setordij condemns the mass murders that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. The work can be viewed in Berlin as an interactive web presentation. Setordij is particularly critical of the role of the mass media, saying that there is a relationship between the interest of the media and the number of casualities in war.

German conceptual artist Thomas Locher uses his text and picture creations to criticize the United Nations Convention against Torture. This artwork, "Human Rights," is part of a series of works with text in small and larger formats, which all refer to specifics articles in the Convention.

In his video works presented in Berlin, Guy Wouete recalls the crimes of the colonial powers in Africa. The Cameroonian multimedia artist studied in the Netherlands. Since then, the situation of African immigrants in Europe has become an important issue for him.

Guy Wouete's video "Corridor" shows African refugees on Malta. Wouete says that he used the project to look at the issue of immigration from the point of view of someone who has "had enough of suffering and problems." The exhibition "united nations revisited" runs in Berlin's "Galerie M" until August 4, 2013.