We are creating our own accesses and silent invasions. Such silent revolutions spread like a mycorrhizal underground network that is sprouting between Ghanaian blaxTARLINES and the art communities of Uganda. This Uganda-Ghana  Exchange program, organized by UNDER GROUND Contemporary Art (Uganda), Vodo Art Society and Lab (Uganda), Weaver Bird Residency and Amasaka Gallery (Uganda), hosts the blaxTARLINES art community (Ghana) to stage an exhibition that delves into the expansive concept of hacking, exploring its applications to materials, ideologies, and intangible viral forms.

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The exhibition silently invades an architecture abandoned to its unrealized future: Like foliage slowly expanding in a construction left to its fate, art is sprouting on unfinished brick walls like unusual mushrooms, mingling with the structure to finally overtake it. Whether it is abandoned architectures, habits of viewing art, norms of communication, the social resignifications of collective memories, the politics of safety and surveillance, the politics of representation, historical narratives– hacking as a form of insertion of new subjectivities into existing (and often narrowly defined) systems can take many forms and have many subjects. It is not more and not less than hijacking the vantage point to steer the narration towards new perspectives.

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Engaging with such complex discourses demands exploring a plethora of diverse forms beyond the traditional painting and sculpture inherited from colonization which largely informs the background of most artists from the continent. Contemporary artists pursue no limit in forms and content as they embrace video, photography, performance, digital art, installations using local materials, and numerous alternative media we cannot even taxonomize easily.

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While this exchange focuses on Uganda and Ghana, it serves as a vital step towards connecting the broader African art scene. Now more than ever, it has become politically pivotal for artists from the African continent to engage with each other, especially, when the premise of Contemporary Art is to transcend national boundaries and more importantly “de-center” art beyond Europe and America. It emphasizes the importance of a united African art community, testing an economy of community currencies and embracing the diversity and richness of the continent as a whole. As East and West Africa connect, a stronger, more cohesive African art community emerges, one that celebrates diversity, embraces resilience, and propels the continent forward.

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A special issue of OnCurating Zurich dedicated to the experience and its theoretical, practical, and poetic consequences will be published in Spring 2024. It will re-house the project into the form of writing, building on the four-year collaborative research process in world making and insurgent production practices in the Global South.

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Exhibiting artists:

Ethel Aanyu (Uganda), Bright Ackwerh (Ghana), Adjo Kisser (Ghana), Afia Prempeh (Ghana), Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah (Ghana), Akanyijuka Evans (Uganda), Aloka Trevor (Uganda), Hassan Issah (Ghana), Kasagga Dennis (Uganda), Godelive Kasangati Kabena (DRC), Jacqueline Katesi Kalange (Uganda), Matt Kayem (Uganda), Kiggundu Rodney (Uganda), Kiyingi Henry (Uganda), Kyakonye Allan (Uganda), M A K A N O (DRC), Nanteza Florence (Uganda), Dan Ngaara Ngalamulume (Rwanda), Odur Ronald (Uganda), Ojok Simon Peter (Uganda), Frederick Ebenezer Okai (Ghana), Jonathan Okoronkwo (Ghana), Piloya Irene (Uganda), Daniel Arnan Quarshie (Ghana), Sandra Suubi (Uganda), Lisa C Soto (Puerto Rico/Ghana), Xenson Ssenkaaba (Uganda), Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson (Ghana), Wamala Kyeyune Joseph (Uganda), Yiga Joshua (Uganda)

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Program:

Fri, Nov 10, 6 pm: Opening performance by Xenson Ssenkaaba

Sat, Nov 11, from 12 am: Artist and curator walkthroughs

Sat, Nov 11, 2 pm: Procession with Sandra Suubi

Sun, Nov 12, from 2 pm: Performance by Godelive Kasangati Kabena

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Download press release

 

To request an exhibition dossier please contact info@amaskagallery.com