15. 9. – 10. 11.2024
»Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other«
with Minia Biabiany, CATPC – Cercle d'art des travailleurs de plantation congolaise, Ramata Coulibaly, Binta Diaw, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Tracey Rose & guests: Luvinsky Atche, Darlène Kassem, Nkhensani Mkhari, Ozoz Sokoh & Magda Tedla (i.a.)
M.Bassy e.V. is conceiving the interdisciplinary exhibition project »Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other« from September until November 2024, which invites works & voices of selected artists, activists, authors & collectives from the African continent and the diaspora to Hamburg to engage aesthetically, critical-investigatively, anthropologically and socio-politically with the themes of food, nutrition, ecology, agriculture and collective resource use from a decolonial, global-southern perspective. The project comprises a two-month group exhibition presenting sculptural, installative and video works by Minia Biabiany, CATPC – Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise, Ramata Coulibaly, Binta Diaw, Luiza Prado de O. Martins & Tracey Rose, three artist & research residencies and accompanying events consisting of artist talks, lectures, food performances and a film screening – furthermore including activists, cultural and culinary actors as Luvinsky Atche, Darlène Kassem, Nkhensani Mkhari, Ozoz Sokoh & Magda Tedla – that seek to approach the topics of food, art and activism holistically and in collaboration with the Hamburg audience.
The exhibition project asks how Black & Afrodiasporic lived experiences can be made visible in the consumption and production of the food stream. How can we sharpen our view for the roots of patriarchal capitalism and monopolistic systems of agriculture? And beyond that, what forms of identity formation and connectedness can we identify in the food culture of Black and Afro-diasporic communities? We invite artistic & cultural actors who consider food and art as a means of resistance and collective empowerment and address these themes through visual, performative, discursive, participatory, and collaborative interventions. Reclaiming food and strategies of »feeding oneself« is crucial for marginalized communities to free themselves from historical mechanisms of exploitation.
Locating this discourse in Hamburg is decisive against the backdrop that the port city historically acted as a »gateway to the colonial world« and the profit of local shipping companies and merchant families was closely intertwined with colonial resource theft and the enslavement of people to cheap labor. Colonial products such as sugar, coffee and bananas are still consumed today, without the historical and trans-Atlantic entanglements often being considered.
LOCATION: M.Bassy e.V., Schlüterstraße 80, 20146 Hamburg
DURATION: Sep. 15 – Nov. 10, 2024, Opening hours during the exhibition: Thu – Sun, 2 – 6 pm
OPENING: Sep. 14, 7 PM, Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY: Ramata Coulibaly & Nkhensani Mkhari
NEXT UPCOMING VENUES:
Sep 28, 7 pm: »From Seed to Sheltering Tree« - Talk & Screening with Darlène Kassem, Food by Luvinsky Atche
Entrance: 15,- EUR. (for students 8,- EUR)
Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org
Darlène Kassem (b. 1996 in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, lives and works in France) is an environmental activist. She has a master's degree in project communications and social responsibility. Darlène became aware of her role in the environmental fight when she realised losses around her. In 2017, she set up her environmental association YIRI to carry out reforestation operations in Côte d'Ivoire's forests and raise awareness among the younger generation. With the film Africa, GMOs and Bill Gates, she aims to shed light on the underbelly of philantrocapitalism in Africa, particularly in food and health projects. Her talk at M.Bassy will to help question the practices of philantrocapitalism and the fight against climate change, and to discuss the importance of committing oneself to what one believes in through concrete actions.
Luvinsky Atche (b. in Bordeaux, France, lives and works in Paris, France) is a musician, composer, actor, theater director and vegan chef at the restaurant Chéri Coco, Pantin, France. He compares art with food and love – with the essential things in life .He will be the vegan chef of the accompanying dinner following the talk & screening.
4:30 pm: accompanying »Climate Fresc«-Workshop on food, drinking water and biodiversity, please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org
In 2 hours the climate puzzle workshop teaches the scientific basics of climate change and helps participants to take action in the field of food, drinking water and biodiversity. No prior knowledge is required. The workshop will be in English and German. With team spirit and collective intelligence, you put playing cards that illustrate the causes and effects of climate change in the right order. The event is based on the reports of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and promotes critical and interdisciplinary thinking, enabling open dialogue and solution-oriented discussions. The environmental activist Darlène Kassem will accompany the workshop team of Heike Falkenberg and Craig Lambert. Snacks and Drinks will be provided. We invite the participants to stay for the evening talk & screening »From Seed to Sheltering Tree«.
Film screening »Africa, GMOs and Bill Gates«, 2021, directed by Jean-Baptiste Renaud
Across Africa, lobbyists, philanthropists and businessmen are working to open up the continent to GMO food. They argue that GMOs can provide a miracle solution to two of Africa’s biggest problems: famine and malaria. The main promoter is Bill Gates, now the head of the most powerful philanthropic foundation in history. This program reveals how the Gates Foundation became the main funder of genetic experiments underway on the continent and investigates the possible repercussions of their actions. The Gates Foundation is discreetly conducting research on cassava genes and on the genetic modification of mosquitoes to fight malaria. These kinds of tests are banned in Europe because of their potential risks to health and the environment. So the trials are carried out in Africa instead. By financing the development of GMOs in Africa, a neoliberal model of development and corporate domination is being imposed on Africa, opening it up to global agribusiness. This is the new world of philanthrocapitalism, where humanitarian aid has a stubborn aftertaste of business, famine programs are often a pretext to introduce GMOs and public investments can serve private interests.
Oct 19 - »(Imigodla Yethu) Ritual Traditions of Communal Manifestation« Lecture by artist, author & curator Nkhensani Mkhari, Food by Magda Tedla
Nov 2- Food Lecture / Workshop by Ozoz Sokoh
(further events will be announced soon!)
The project is funded by the Elbkulturfonds by the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg, Fonds Soziokultur from funds of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Norddeutsche Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung from proceeds of the BINGO! Umweltlotterie and Postcode Lotterie.