The group exhibition »Beyond AI: Resistance & Coexistence« at M.Bassy e.V. presents selected artworks by artists from the African continent and the diaspora who recognize AI – Artificial Intelligence as an opportunity to shape historical narratives and imaginations of African identities in a self-determined way. The rapid development of AI technologies will permanently change our society and economy and reach into the sphere of every individual. Racist, discriminatory, and manipulated information undermines the socially just quality of AI-based systems, which raises the question of inclusive guidelines. The artistic positions are aware of our (digitally) intertwined destinies and the need for alliances because these technologies are about our stories, our data, and our being. In the panel accompanying the exhibition, we will explore how AI, algorithms and bots shape our view of the world and how colonial power inequalities are continuously manifest here. Together with the audience, we will discuss how AI can generate a sense of self-empowered collectivity for marginalized communities and how AI can be used as a socially engaged tool to conceive democratic forms of society and economy.

Minne Atairu

Minne Atairu (b. 1992, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist with a research-based practice focused on reclaiming obscured histories. Through the use of generative artificial intelligence and additive fabrication, Atairu reassembles visual, sonic, and textual fragments into conceptual works that engage with questions of repatriation and post-repatriation. With an MA in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and a BA in Creative Arts from the University of Maiduguri, Atairu's work reflects the complexities of Black identity within AI systems. She has exhibited and performed at The Shed, New York, US (2023); Frieze, London, UK (2023); The Harvard Art Museums, Boston, US (2022); MARKK Museum, Hamburg (2021); SOAS Brunei Gallery University of London, UK (2022); Microscope Gallery, New York, USA (2022) and Fleming Museum of Art, Vermont, USA (2021). She is the recipient of the 2021 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology (Global Majority Award).

Nkhensani Mkhari

Nkhensani Mkhari (b. 1994, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary curator and artist. Their broad praxis spans from the philosophy that ‘the medium chooses the message’ and encompasses photography, painting, performance art, sound design and digital media. Their artworks function as multimodal, material-semiotic metaphors. They describe their work as a queer meditation on transience, aesthetic sociology, and redemptive futurologies to explores what individuality is, what collectivity is, and what it means to share “space”. Mkhair's keen interest in the intersections between art and technology led to their first residency at the Fak'ugesi digital innovation festival in 2018. He exhibited at international institutions in Germany, France and South Africa.

Jazmin Morris

Jazmin Morris (b. 1997, UK) is a creative computing artist and educator based in London. Her personal practise and research explore representation and inclusivity within technology. She uses free and open-source tools to create digital experiences that highlight issues surrounding gender, race and power focusing on the complexities within simulating culture and identity. As a socially engaged artist she often collaborates with communities to provide workshops linking digital know how with social and gender empowerment. Morris has collaborated with various studios and institutions across Europe including Deichtorhallen Hamburg, The Hague (KABK), Hyphen Labs, A Vibe Called Tech, Tate Modern, NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Institute of Coding, Stemettes and Hervisions.

Vanessa Amoah Opoku

Vanessa Amoah Opoku (b. 1992, Germany) is an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on history, technology, and marginalized narratives within mixed realities. In her artistic practice, she reflects on how alliances between art, science, and technology can change perceptions of our world, reality, and all living things. Her preferred media include 3D graphics, animation, sculpture, photogrammetry, sound, and artificial intelligence. Opoku is part of the artist collective PARA. Since 2021, she has been the art curator of Balance Club Culture Festival. She studied Book Art and Graphic Design, Art and Digital Media and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Arts at Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig in 2021. She holds a scholarship from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation and won »gute aussichten – new german photography 2021/2022«. She has exhibited her works at Deichtorhallen Hamburg; die Angewandte, Vienna, Austria; Grassi Museum Leipzig; Künstlerhaus Dortmund; Halle 14 Leipzig; (im)Mutable Studio, Los Angeles, USA with a solo show at Synnika Frankfurt; Times Museum's Huangbian Station Contemporary Art Research Center (HBS), Guangzhou, China and at EIGEN+ART Lab, Berlin.

Linda Dounia Rebeiz

Linda Dounia Rebeiz (*1994, Senegal) is an artist and designer who investigates the philosophical implications of technocapitalism and its role in furthering systems of inequity. Her practice is an active process for decolonizing her mind and untangling herself from the fragmented and exclusionary narratives that are associated with her identity by imagining alternative realities and futures. Her work is formed in the liminal space between the immaterial and the material through the combination of analogue and digital mediums – acrylic, ink, pastels, markers, scanners, vector, video, GANs, generative AI, code, and a range of materials not intended for art making. Her work has been exhibited at Christie’s; Larsen Warner Gallery; Unit London, UK; Art X Lagos, Nigeria; Partcours, Art Basel (Basel, Miami); The Dakar Biennale, Senegal; Artsy NFT Digital Art Fair Asia and Art Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She has curated exhibitions on Feral File, SuperRare and Foundation. Linda Dounia Rebeiz was recognized on the TIME’s list of the most influential people in AI in 2023.

Musa Okwonga

Musa Okwonga, born in London in 1979, is a British-Ugandan writer, journalist, and musician. Okwonga has written numerous essays and articles on culture, racism, gender, music, sports, politics, and technology. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, The New Statesman, and The New York Times, among others, as well as in Die Zeit and taz. He has published two books on soccer, as well as a volume of poetry. His debut "In the end, it was all about Love" was published by mairisch in 2022. He has lived in Berlin-Friedrichshain since 2014.

OPENING: Saturday, 13.04.2024, 7 pm (The event is fully booked)

Panel with Nkhensani Mkhari, Jazmin Morris, Vanessa Amoah Opoku & Linda Dounia Rebeiz .
Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org

WORKSHOP: Saturday, 13.04.2024, 1-3.30 pm »Braided Networks« mit Jazmin Morris

Join us for an afternoon with the artist and educator Jazmin Morris where she will expand on her current project »Braided Networks« with a participatory AI-workshop at M.Bassy. During the first half of the workshop, Jazmin will introduce some of the key themes and concepts that arise from the exhibited work »Braided Networks« expanding upon her research around the relationship between hair braiding and artificial intelligence and general thoughts around computation and culture. Participants will be encouraged to discuss their opinions together and to reflect upon their relationship with their own data and with technology. Following the discussion, Jazmin will lead a web-based creative activity where participants are asked to use the open source tool Twine to generate a personal data map. No prior coding knowledge is needed to join the workshop although we will be using basic HTML and CSS to generate the data maps. If you are able to, please bring a laptop or tablet to the workshop. We will have a small number of tablets on-site available to anyone who is unable to bring a device. We are looking forward seeing you at the space! Snacks & drinks are provided.

Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org

M.Bassy e.V., Schlüterstraße 80, 20146 Hamburg
Opening hours during the exhibition: Thu – Sun, 2 – 6 pm

The exhibition is funded by the Claussen-Simon-Stiftung, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS and ifa – Institute of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Culture and Media, Hamburg.