The Earth as a Wayfinder: (Un)rooting Knowledge

Sustaining the Otherwise and Afropocene StudioLab present The Earth as a Wayfinder: (Un)rooting Knowledge, which takes the shape of an experimental research forum, organized around several interrelated themes: (Un)rooting Ancestral Knowledge(s); Coded Languages of Refusal; Becoming at One with the World. 

In this gathering, our focus is on alternative artistic processes and materials, and what’s lost and dispossessed in the afterlife of colonialism. Across East Africa and its diasporas, there’s an ongoing investment in interlinking restitution with questions of land, dispossession, and ancestral life worlds. Many artists and designers have developed practices that extend beyond the Eurocentric notion of ‘sustainable practices’, foregrounding rituals of memory-keeping and memory-making as intrinsic to these practices.  These topics will be highlighted also within the wider concept of re-routing/decoding knowledge. 

Additionally, with the workshop Working with Bark Cloth Histories, led by Sheila Nakitende, we will explore process-based materials and how artistic, design, and activist practices create and document the use of traditional materials such as raffia, banana fiber, and handmade bark cloth. In what ways does this deconstruction and reconstruction of material(s) relate to the relationship between humans, their environment, and memory work? And how can the reworking of traditional techniques such as weaving and stitching be understood as integral to human survival, meditation, and healing in these fast-paced times?

Through this program, we aim to unpack and (un)learn how restitution, material culture, dispossession and climate justice are interlinked and can be expanded beyond the object by focusing on practices that are centered around ancestral knowledge and collective creation.

With contributions by Damien Ajavon, Amal Alhaag, AYO, Teesa Bahana, Banji Chona, Letaru Dralega, Russel Hlongwane, Luanda Carneiro Jacoel, Liz Kobusinge, George Mahashe, Sheila Nakitende, Christian Nyampeta, Robel Temesgen, and Selene Wendt. 

Sustaining the Otherwise
Sustaining the Otherwise is a multilocational research and artistic project about restitution, reparation and transformation, conceptualized and curated by Selene Wendt and Amal Alhaag. This iteration, (Un)rooting Knowledge, is co-curated and realized in collaboration with Letaru Dralega and Afropocene StudioLab. For more information, please see the Sustaining the Otherwise website. If you would like to keep updated about current and future programming, please subscribe to our newsletter. 

Afropocene StudioLab
Afropocene Arts Ltd is an artist-led initiative comprising Afropocene StudioLab and Afropocene The Capsule. The Capsule is a compact gallery space in the heart of Kampala dedicated to the promotion of experimental contemporary art and alternative exhibition formats. The StudioLab is a 'Co-Arts' space providing studios and workshop space for artists, researchers, thinkers, experimenters, developers & doers. We provide space and community for any and all explorers of African futures.

With generous support from Creative Industries Fund NL, Nordic Culture Fund, and OCA, as well as support from the DOEN Foundation and The African Arts Trust for Afropocene StudioLab’s programming.