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

Please register by email to presse@ngbk.de

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

nGbK am Alex

Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11/13, 10178 Berlin, 1st floor (access via escalator)

Opening hours: Tue–Sun 12–6 pm, Fri 12–8 pm

Accessible with wheelchairs and strollers (via elevator)

Free admission

Information for visitors is available here.

Are you in Berlin or Germany or nearby Country or willing to travel by yourselves from any part of the world to Berlin? Join Open Studio Week with your project/practice! In the spirit of pIAR we are opening nGbK, Berlin as a space for sharing, workshops, discussions and performances. pIAR Alumnux and pIAR affiliated artists, activists, curators, writers and friends are invited to show, share, use the space! The Open Studio can host up to 100 people, has an open window front to Alexanderplatz and is equipped with a projector, sound system and a microphone. Chairs if needed and possibly yoga mats, blankets and pillows. Join Feedback session!We will also host a feedback session. You can join this session, present a project you are working on and receive feedback from pIAR peers.To register for participation please click the link here