Activist Choreographies of Care

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 plans to reclaim the bill.

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.

See the full list of events at ngbk.de.

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

Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi is supported by the Martin Roth-Initiative, a joint protection program of the ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the Goethe-Institut, which is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

In cooperation with the DAAD Arts and Media Program.

neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.