KfW Stiftung and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program present »on universality and multiplicity: curating from the void«

25.01.2019 / 19:00 – 21:00

Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh in conversation with Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson

During their presentation, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh and Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson will introduce their respective independent curatorial and artistic practices as examples of the »silent revolution« initiated by blaxTARLINES KUMASI—the contemporary art incubator based at the Department of Painting and Sculpture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)—towards universalism, in the context of contemporary art practice in Ghana.

Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh is an artist, curator and writer based in Kumasi, Ghana. He is the current grant holder of KfW Stiftung’s program »Curators in Residence: Curating Connections’ in collaboration«. Ohene-Ayeh has co-curated »Silence Between the Lines: Anagrams of Emancipated Futures« (2015) and »Orderly Disorderly« (2017), both organized by blaxTARLINES KUMASI. He was guest curator for the inaugural Lagos Biennial (2017) and recently curated »Spectacles. Speculations…« (2018), featuring 16 artists from Ghana, Holland and Colombia, in Kumasi. He is currently a PhD student at KNUST and publishes essays on www.iubeezy.wordpress.com.
Artist Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson (Ghana) explores the latent ability of ubiquitous materials (synthetic or natural) to transform into unrecognizable, strange, new and mimicry forms. For this purpose, Thompson employs alchemical processes of dissolution and crystallization of the varied morphology of things. Her emancipated approach to artmaking creates a disposition that transcends given notions of the art apparatus itself and questions what it could potentially be. She has participated in two large-scale exhibitions organized by blaxTARLINES KUMASI in Accra, namely »Cornfields in Accra« (2016) and »Orderly Disorderly« (2017). Thompson is an MFA student at KNUST and is currently participating in the intercontinental exchange program at Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.

Conceived by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, curator in residence of »Curating Connections« 2018/2019.

The program »Curators in Residence: Curating Connections« is an initiative of the foundation KfW Stiftung and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Previous grant holders include Zasha Colah (Mumbai), Dana Whabira (Harare), Mustafa Hussain Shabbir (Singapur) and Florencia Portocarrero (Lima).

Free admission

Photo: Simon Bowman, Untitled, 2016, photographic print on blue-black paper, 72in x 48in, for Cornfields in Accra exhibition (2016), image courtesy blaxTARLINES KUMASI