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Activist Choreographies of Care: perfocraZe International Artist Residency
Activist Choreographies of Care
29 March – 1 June 2025
Opening: 28 March 2025, 7 pm
Press preview: 28 March 2025, 11 am
Activist Choreographies of Care: perfocraZe International Artist Residency opens at nGbK on March 28. The project connects Kumasi and Berlin, intertwining queer stories told in, about, and from those locations. Archival and newly produced artistic works, previous performances and new live actions are linked by an event program, bringing together the communal spirit of the residency with the notion of a gathering space provided by an exhibition display and performance set-up.
Activist Choreographies of Care opens a satellite space of the perfocraZe International Artist Residency [pIAR] from Kumasi, Ghana, in Berlin. pIAR is a self-organized safer space for people of the LGBTQIA+ community in Ghana, which is currently under acute threat from a law disguised as “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights And Ghanaian Family Values Bill”. The law, which was passed by Parliament in February 2024 criminalizes the identification as LGBTQIA+ and the promotion of LGBTQIA+ rights, amongst many other activities. While the law has not been signed by the previous parliament, hence suspending its implementation, the new parliament allegedly plans to include the violent and discriminatory content of the law in school curricula.
Through installation, film, textiles, poetry and performance, the artists engage with the search for queer ancestries, dismantling colonial histories inscribed in bodies and spaces, to build different worlds that hold space for connection, daily resistance, and transformation. Kumasi and Berlin-based artists explore circular narrations and speculative queer futures. Looking at pre-colonial histories, the project gathers artists whose work challenges Western notions of binary genders and queerness, to raise international solidarity and build resilience networks.
The exhibition serves as a space to meet, engage, exchange and share food. In this spirit, the opening night will feature performances by the participating artists. In April and May, the program continues with open studios, a movie night, a performance marathon, workshops, and the Love fEAST. The Love fEAST is an annual dinner and dance party that bridges the gap between artists, queer families, and local communities in Kumasi.
The exhibition and accompanying public program will all culminate in a publication, which will be available from nGbK’s publishing house in May.
Artists: Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Martin Toloku, Sarah Ama Duah, Anthony R. Green & Julius Yaw Quansah, Rüzgâr Buşki & Mawuenya Amudzi, Marcella Nuerkie Akuetteh, Rebecca Korang & Efia Serwah, Akpene Akosua Deku, Chie Marquart-Tabel & Austin Nortey, Angel Maxine, Isabel Kwarteng-Acheampong, Audrey Obuobisa-Darko, Baahwa, Damien Kwadjo, Efua Osei, Kobena Ampofo, Kwame Boateng, Nenyi Ato Bentum, Kwame Brenyah, Bodi Babatola, Otis Mensah and the K++V Performance Swarm
nGbK work group: Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (crazinisT artisT), hn. lyonga, Sunny Pfalzer, Malte Pieper, Maj Smoszna
INFORMATION AND OPPORTUNITIES YOU MUST NOT MISS
perfocraZe International Artist Residency (pIAR)
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
LovefEAST
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.
CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS ON SELECTED ARTISTS
perfocraZe International Artist Residency-[pIAR] 2022
Find out about our Artists Residency Program HERE
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perfocraZe International Artist Residency
crazinisT artisT studiO
About crazinisT artisT studiO
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.