We are happy to share some of the exciting experiences and new connections we made in the context of further expanding our collaborations and alliances with art scenes in Africa and South America
On a recent trip, on which we invited some of our peers to join us, the group travelled to Ghana from February 25 to March 8, 2026. The trip and its itinerary were organized by Krystel Khoury and Felipe Steinberg from Mophradat, with curatorial input from Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Ato Annan in Accra. Batool Elhennawy from the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo, artist and curator Laila Hida from Le 18 in Marrakesh, and music promoter Sarah El Miniawy from Simsara in Cairo/London travelled with Krystel and Mophradat’s director Mai Abu ElDahab to Accra, Tamale, and Kumasi, where they visited art spaces, institutions, and initiatives, and met with artists, researchers, and curators.
In Accra, the group met artists Rita Mauwena Benissan, Theresah Ankomah, Dela Anyah, photographer Eric Gyamfi, Artemartis Collective (Courage Hunke, Abdur Rahman Muhammad, and Awanle Ayiboro Hawa Ali). They also visited Worldfaze Art Practice founded by artist Kwesi Botchway and met artists Frank Coffie and Selorm Amekorfia, dot.ateliers, Dikan Center and its photography library, Limbo Museum, and Nubuke Foundation. The group engaged in conversations with Nubuke Foundation programmer Nana Opoku and Compound House Gallery’s curator Nuna Adisenu-Doe and filmmaker and curator Aseye Tamakloe. We were also introduced to The Revival, one of the upcycling initiatives at Kantamanto, West Africa’s largest secondhand clothing market.
During the second part of the trip, the group flew to Tamale in the north where they visited the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts, Ibrahim Mahama’s Red Clay Studio, and the exhibition space Nkrumah Volini with Benjamin Adjetey Okantey and Selom Koffi Kudjie.
An eight-hour bus ride took the researchers to Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti Region in southern Ghana. There, they were invited to the perfocraZe International Artist Residency by activist and multidisciplinary trans artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi and met with Marcella Nuerkie Akuetteh (Naa) and their community of artists around a dinner. The next day was spent with artists and teachers from the blaxTARLINES community at the Department of Painting and Sculpture, Faculty of Art, at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The group also visited the studios of artists Hassan Issah, Samuel Baah Kortey, Jonathan Okoronkwo, and Halimatu Iddrisu and met with rap artists at the Asakaa Music Trap House.
Upon returning to Accra, curator Elizabeth Asafo-Adjei, took the group on a tour of the National Museum of Ghana. The next day, they saw a musical theatre piece titled Makola Queensby by the Harmonious Chorale Ghana. Finally, the group gave a public talk that was very well-attended at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. It involved some candid conversations on the difficult relationship between North Africa and the rest of the continent, yet there still was an optimistic outlook on the new artistic connections that this visit could generate. The trip ended with impassioned conversations with people from the Accra art scene at photographer and artist Nii Obodai’s residence.
We are very thankful to The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ato Annan, Adwoah Amoah and Abraham Tettey, Hassan Issah and all the artists and people we have met.
