In cooperation with Dekoloniale we are pleased to to announce the three artists selected for the annual residency program in Berlin, Germany: Bianca Xunise, Bunga Siagian & Jere Inkongio.

The three very talented residents were selected by the Dekoloniale Berlin Residency’s high-profile 2022 jury chaired by Hou Hanru, prolific writer and curator and N’Goné Fall, independent curator and cultural policies specialist. Permanent jury members were the curatorial collective »Nyabinghi Lab« (Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall, Timnit Zéré), the visual artist Raul Walch, Contemporary And (C&)’s founders Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba as well as Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard and Anna Yeboah on behalf of the Dekoloniale team.

The Dekoloniale Berlin Residency of 2023 will focus on uncovering and transforming historical colonial stratifications and dominant narratives in Berlin’s public space, particularly in Berlin’s western districts. The works of Bianca Xunise, Bunga Siagian & Jere Inkongio will highlight the struggles for social and political justice by anti-colonial networks in Berlin from 1918-1933, the Bandung and Pan-African Movements, as well as  the renaissance of Black Activism in Berlin in the 1980s. The residency is expected to expand over its run within this unique and dynamic framework, exploring various artistic practices, including photography, film, prints, street art and performance within the overall theme AGITP[R]OP, which seeks to instigate revolutionary social change through reproducible, symbolic, brazen, condensed, emotional, and accessible artistic interventions in the public sphere.

Bianca Xunise is a cartoonist based out of Chicago, Illinois. Their work primarily focuses on the plight, joy, and daily microaggressions of being black in the 21st century. In 2017 Xunise earned an Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent for their comic Say Her Name, an autobiographical story of police brutality and social justice. In 2020 Xunise earned their second Ignatz Award for their contribution to Be Gay, Do Comics published by IDW. Xunise has collaborated with Vogue, The Washington Post, The Nib, and Believer Magazine. They are also a contributor to the book How We Fight Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance along with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tarana Burk, and Harry Belafonte. Bianca became the first nationally syndicated non-binary cartoonist (and the second black woman) when they joined the comic strip Six Chix in 2020 as their first black creator. Xunise identifies as both non-binary and a black woman.

Bunga Siagian is a cultural producer, researcher, and writer. Her current ongoing research looks at the 3rd Afro-Asia Film Festival as left-third worldism praxis. Based in Jatiwangi, she co-founded BKP, a study agency of land that situates its practices at the nexus of the arts, community, and the legacy of colonialism. Some of her writings are available in Arkipel Film Festival 2013-2016 Catalogue, Asian Film Archive’s ‘Monographs’ commissioned Essay (https://www.asianfilmarchive.org/the-disappearingdecade-agency-of-leftist-subject-in-indonesian-film-history, 2021), Unjuk Rasa (published by Yayasan Kelola, 2018), Jurnal Footage (https://jurnalfootage.net/v4/), and ‘Art for (and with) a Citizen Scene: A Look at Art Primarily Active in the Context of Daily Practices’, a co-publication project between Framer Framed and the Willem de Kooning Academy.

Jere Inkongio is a new media, performative and immersive artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. Through a research-based art practice, he explores the intersections of infrastructure, identity, and archiving using mediums like performance, photography, video, animation, creative coding, 3D and XR. In his artistic process, he employs audience engagement, affect, and storytelling, while contextualizing global to local effects and ramifications, and the digital revolution in political economy & the arts using interactivity, exploration of space, identity, and memory. His artworks attempt to blur the lines between past, present, and future, creating a non-linear blend that presents a critical exploration of existing archives and a reimagination of public spaces (physical and digital). He is a Magnum Foundation Fellow, a Digital Earth Fellow as well as a World Press Photo grantee. His work has been shown at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 5th Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Durban, the 11th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Hong-Gah Museum, Taiwan, ZKU Berlin, 2nd Lagos Biennale amongst others. He is a member of the curatorial collective TXL.