How can activists and shapeshifters use art as a radical tool to engage their societies towards critical thinking?
perfocraZe International Artist Residency
pIAR is certified as an interdisciplinary artists program, performance ‘hatchery’, cultural incubator, research laboratory and interactive platform that aimed at promoting exchange between international and local artists, activists, researchers, writers, curators and critical thinkers
Love fEAST is an annual dinner that aims at promoting true Ghanaian family values of hospitality, compassion, kindness, community networks, and a healthy human relations.
It seeks to bridge the gap between the artists, the queer families, and local communities. It marks the celebration of our new year, a rebirth, solidarity and untamed love.
crazinisT artisT studiO is a nonprofit interdisciplinary incubator and a practical performance research space which started in 2011 as a personal and solo artist’s space for painting and later transitioned into multidisciplinary studio practice through performances, videos, photography, installations and films. The year 2015 marked the first international and cross disciplinary collaborations opening with 68 international participants in ‘the Return of the Slaves’, (12 hours durational performance in the slave dungeon of Elmina Castle) which was supported by the Ghana Museums and Monument Board (GMMB), Elmina Castle, blaxTARLINES and the Department of Painting and Sculpture, KNUST.
As an artist, director and collaborator, Va-Bene E.K Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] has annually invited artists across the world to participate in studio projects and also exhibit at the Chale Wote Art Festival in Accra. crazinisT’s second collaboration with Natascia Sylverio from the University of Cologne, was on her Thesis project ‘Visual Anthropology and Performance Art’. In 2016 the studio developed an intense collaborative relationship with a German performance artist, John Herman which was presented at the 2017 Chale Wote Art Festival in the James Fort prison Accra. In April to August 2018, crazinisT artisT studiO collaborated with The One Minute, an Amsterdam based Film institute, curating a series of short films dubbed ‘prism of Freedom’, currently touring the world and screened recently in the Shanghai tower and the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (CN)
The studio however, has opened a new Performance Residency, [pIAR] starting in January through to end of August 2019 and every other year. pIAR 2019 will host more than 20 artists, from Switzerland, Germany, UK, USA, Brazil, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Canary Islands, Togo and Mexico for artistic development, collaborative projects, and cultural exchange.
crazinisT, has also performed and exhibited in Ghana, Germany, USA, South Africa, Switzerland, Netherlands, Nigeria, Cape Verde, UK and Togo and has strong ties with the Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute, Gallery 1957, Faculty of Art KNUST, blaxTARLINES, Nubuke Foundation, Museum of Science and Technology Accra, the Prince Claus Fund, and Art Moves Africa (AMA) as major supporters and sponsors over the past years.