Accompanying the exhibition project »Unity in Diversity: Pan-African Art Practices of Collective Care«, M.Bassy hosts a 3-day Thinking Lab with the artist, filmmaker, musician and lecturer Larry Achiampong, the actress and filmmaker Aïssa Maïga, the multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur Teemour Diop Mambéty & the writer, archivist and activist Attillah Springer. It aims to provide a platform for experts and cultural actors from various disciplines to exchange and discuss Pan-Africanism, its history, current significance, and future perspectives, and furthermore, to network and to unite to develop concrete steps for the future.
 

The Thinking Lab is structured along the axis »Past – Present – Future« to enable a coherent and in-depth engagement with the theme of Pan-Africanism. Questions are e.g.: What are the historical and cultural foundations of Pan-Africanism? How does Pan-Africanism manifest today in social movements, political activism and economic cooperation? How do contemporary artists and activists use Pan-African concepts to address current issues such as racism, identity, and climate justice? How can Pan-Africanism be designed to be intergenerational and inclusive, to involve young people and marginalized groups more effectively?
 
The Thinking Labs culminates in a public Panel Conference on November 8 where Pan-African core messages, demands and visions will be discussed together with the audience formulating strategies for a solidarity-driven future in a globalized world. Can we collaboratively draft a »Pan-African Manifesto«?
 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & SPEAKERS:

AÏSSA MAÏGA

Aïssa Maïga (b. 1975 in Dakar, Senegal; lives and works in Dakar and Paris, France) is a French actress and filmmaker of Senegalese and Malian descent. She has collaborated with Michael Haneke, Abderrahmane Sissako and Michel Gondry, and gained international recognition with Taken Down (Ireland, 2018), The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (UK, 2019) and the American series King Shaka (USA, 2022).Nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress for Bamako (2006), she has received numerous accolades, including the Globe de Cristal Award for Best Actress. She initiated the collective book Black is Not My Job (2018), a manifesto against racism and sexism in cinema. As a director, she signed Above Water (2021) and co-directed Regard Noir (2021). She is also the founder of the Mohamed Maïga Association, dedicated to supporting African investigative journalism. In 2026, she will appear in several new projects, including a TV film directed by Corinne Masiero, the science-fiction feature Just After Dawn by Olivier Boillot, and Killing of a Nation by Mexican filmmaker Carlos Bolado.
 

ATTILLAH SPRINGER 

Attillah Springer (b. 1986 in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago; lives in Port of Spain) is a Trinidad & Tobago born writer, Creative Strategist, and Community Organiser working at the crossroads of culture, memory, and heritage. Through her work with Idakeda Group, a collective of women in her family, she creates programmes that centre culture and community organising as part of the movement for reparatory justice. She is deeply involved in Trinidad Carnival, focusing on ritual, memory and performance as tools for education and empowerment among women of all ages and young Black men. As a writer she collaborates with visual and performance artists and she’s also an archive activist with an interest in curating archival materials to shape contemporary actions for social change. She also has more than 20 years of experience as a media practitioner and has produced for radio, television, print and digital platforms, always centering under-represented voices–from women, to indigenous peoples to marginalised spiritual communities.
 

TEEMOUR DIOP MAMBETY

Teemour Diop Mambety is a Senegalese multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose practice bridges audiovisual arts, music, design, literature, and cultural event creation. His works explore the interplay between artistic forms and contemporary African imaginaries, building continuity between popular expression and aesthetic research, between individual creation and collective dynamics. For Teemour, these diverse fields form a single narrative — a fragmented yet coherent story where each medium extends the thinking of another. His approach, both conceptual and instinctive, is guided by an untamed sincerity, an uncompromising belief in artistic and editorial freedom, encompassing thematic, aesthetic, and production choices alike.

As a versatile artist, he engages in collaborations that blur boundaries between disciplines. Alongside his artistic practice, he has an extensive background in brand strategy, visual identity, and cultural communication, and has worked with television networks during key technological transitions. Based between Paris and Dakar, Teemour develops a body of work grounded in the circulation of ideas, forms, and energies — a reflection of his commitment to a contemporary and Pan-African vision of creation, and of a political stance.

LARRY ACHIAMPONG

The artistic projects of British-Ghanaian artist, filmmaker, musician, and lecturer Larry Achiampong (b. 1984 in London, UK; lives In London) explore concepts of class, gender, and identity in transcultural and digital contexts through film, photography, acoustic and visual archiving, performance, object art, sound, and game design. In his artistic work, popular culture intersects with traces of colonial history—Achiampong combs through history and the present for persistent inequalities in society. The artist has realized numerous international projects, including commissions for Art on the Underground, London (2022) and The Liverpool Biennial, UK (2021). He has taught at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2020) and the University of Central Lancashire, UK (2016) (i.a.). His solo exhibitions include Turner Contemporary, London (2022); Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada (2021), and 019, Ghent, Belgium (2019) (i.a.). In 2021, he was nominated for the Jarman Award, and in 2023, he was on the list for the British Academy Film Awards.
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8.11.2025, 7 pm: »Pan-Africanism: Past – Present – Future« Panel Conference with Larry Achiampong, Aïssa Maïga, Teemour Diop Mambéty & Attillah Springer

Please reserve: reservation@m-bassy.org
 
We would like to thank the Claussen-Simon Foundation, the ifa - Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, the Liebelt Foundation, the BKM - Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, and the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS for their funding and support of the project. Furthermore, we would also like to thank gallery Selebe Yoon, Dakar, the studio of Larry Achiampong, London, LUX, London, Twenty Nine Studio & Production, Brussels and The Otolith Collective for their cooperation and support in realizing this project.