On the occasion of our exhibition project »Beyond AI: Resistance & Coexistence« in spring 2024 we warmly welcomed the artists Nkhensani Mkhari, Jazmin Morris, Vanessa Amoah Opoku & Linda Dounia Rebeiz at M.Bassy for a public panel discussion. In a private prelude on the evening bevor the opening, we had the one-off chance to record an in-depth-conversation of these leading young artists engaging in new digital technologies from a decolonial and sociopolitical perspective.
Nkhensani Mkhari & Luiza Prado about Art, Food, Language & Resistance
The Talk is moderated by Jumoke Olusanmi. The podcast is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition »Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves & Each Other« at M.Bassy Hamburg.
Accompanying the exhibition project »Unity in Diversity: Pan-African Art Practices of Collective Care« with Larry Achiampong, Sammy Baloji, Hamedine Kane & The Otolith Group (Oct 12 – Dec 6, 2025) M.Bassy hosted a three-day Thinking Lab entitled »Pan-Africanism: Past – Present – Future« with Larry Achiampong, Aïssa Maïga, Teemour Diop Mambéty & Attillah Springer culminated in a public panel conference on November 8, where pan-African core messages, demands, and visions were discussed with the audience, who formulated strategies for a solidarity-driven future in a globalised world.
On an uncharacteristically warm April day, we meet Bonaventure Ndikung at SAVVY Contemporary. Dressed in a two-piece suit with a colorful cravat, the erudite curator and biotechnologist certainly cuts an imposing figure — but conversation quickly reveals a generosity of perspective equal to that of his renowned intellect.
As part of pur 2024 literature series »Making Wor(l)ds. Contemporary African Diasporic Women Writing in Europe« Minna Salami, a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish feminist author, social critic and former Program Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE in Hamburg, dived into an intimate conversation with the British-Ugandan writer, journalist, and musician Musa Okwonga talking about her latest book »Sensuous Knowledge - A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone« (2020) and her engagement in Black feminism, ancestral knowledge systems and embodied writing practices.
We were honored to welcome the Malian singer, songwriter, guitarist and acclaimed actress Fatoumata Diawara at M.Bassy for an unplugged concert ad well as intimate talk with Musa Okwonga about connection, receiving and sharing as well as following the path of an African feminists. She is hailed as the voice of young African womanhood – proud of her heritage but with a vision that looks confidently to the future and a message that is universal.
Showing at this year’s Lagos Photo, which begins this week, is Fortia: a breath-taking series of images in which a masked black woman, poses stunningly in a red dress. Keyezua, the artist, is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Netherlands and is returning to Lagos Photo for the second year running. She sees herself as a storyteller, currently reinventing herself to tell the day-to-day stories of women around the world that make her uncomfortable to remain silent.
Die Modeszene Kenias ist in den letzten Jahren erheblich gewachsen. Die neuen Modemacherinnen sind allesamt bemüht, Einflüsse aus ihre unmittelbaren Umgebung in ausgefallene, zeitlose Designs zu verwandeln. Allerdings wird ihnen oft vorgeworfen, dass ihre Mode nicht afrikanisch genug sei. Die Vorwürfe kommen meist von der globalen Modeindustrie, die einerseits sehnlichst nach „afrikanischer“ Inspiration für ihre Mode sucht, andererseits aber gerne den Prüfdienst für die „Authentizität“ afrikanischer Mode spielt.
