DIS-OTHERING Beyond Afropolitan & other labels

DIS-OTHERING Beyond Afropolitan & other labels is a collaboration between BOZAR–Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels), Kulturen in Bewegung (Vienna) and SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin) on the necessary deconstruction of “othering” practices in European cultural institutions, funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

The two-year project DIS-OTHERING – beyond Afropolitan & other labels, under the artistic direction of Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, consists of an exhibition, symposia, a festival, talks and performances, a residency program, and mapping research, all manifesting in 2018 and 2019 in Berlin, Brussels, Vienna and Warsaw. These different formats share the bringing together of artists, communities, thinkers and people of all walks of life to deliberate on contemporary processes and technologies of “Dis-Othering.” This project is founded by Creative Europe program of the European Union.

Further events in Vienna, Warsaw and Brussels will be announced.

GEOGRAPHIES OF IMAGINATION September 9-November 11 2018 Thursday–Sunday 2-7pm SAVVY Contemporary Plantagenstr. 31 13347 Berlin

Through GEOGRAPHIES OF IMAGINATION we engage in confabulations to build connections between the varied and conflicting uses of imagination in constructing otherness and the role of geography as a tool of power. How is power situated at the core of processes of othering, and how are these processes connected to forms of belonging that we could also relate to notions of territoriality and possession? The other, writes Ta-Nehisi Coates, exists beyond the border of the great “belonging,” something that contributed to producing the sense of anxiety that brought white, patriarchal supremacists of the far right to politically emerge again in recent elections, in the US as much as in several European countries.

GEOGRAPHIES OF IMAGINATION is thought as an exhibition, a research, a cartographic time-line and above all a space where artists come together to weave, through very different positions, possible formulas towards a core question bell hooks poses and we want to pose over and over again: How can we—now understood as humanity—find a sense of belonging that will encourage and bring us to “embrace all of the conditions of the world,” even beyond the human species and towards the earth as a whole?

Curators: Antonia Alampi, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
With: Salwa Aleryani, Heba Amin, American Artist, Rossella Biscotti, Chimurenga, Saddie Choua, Michele Ciacciofera, Anna Binta Diallo, Dimitri Fagbohoun, Mahir Jamal, Anna Lindal, Ibrahim Mahama, Tanja Muravskaja, Oscar Murillo, Daniela Ortiz and Sandra Schäfer

LOOKING B(L)ACK SYMPOSIUM: Travels as Gaze Reversal October 19, 2018 6-10pm October 20, 2018 11am-12am BOZAR 23 Rue Ravenstein 1000 Brussels

A weekend of talks and performances dedicated to the notion of Black Travel, curated by Johny Pitts, TV host and author of the forthcoming publication Afropean: Documenting Black Europe. Within the general notion of travelling, the symposium will look to complicate an area overly hinged on white, masculine, heteronormative experiences, and celebrate the gaze of a diverse group travelers who are often ignored.

The symposium closes with Black Britain poetry & literature and a concert by Marie Daulne.

With the participation of: Marie Daulne, Caryl Phillips, Tete-Michel Kpomassie, Claude Grunitzky, Jessica De Abreu, Lola Akinmade, Bernardine Evaristo, Aminata Jama, Catherine Johnson, Inua Ellams Roger Robinson Nick Makoha and more.

Johny Pitts is a writer, photographer, and broadcast journalist. He curates the award winning online journal Afropean.com, part of the Guardian’s Africa Network. He has received various awards for his work exploring Afro-European identity, including a Decibel Penguin Prize; his photography has been presented by the BBC, Arts Council England and Art Angel, for which he collaborated with novelist Caryl Phillips on an exploration of London’s relationship with immigration.

www.bozar.be