Until November 10, M. Bassy is pleased to present in his art center “Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other”. This unique interdisciplinary exhibition brings together an impressive number of contemporary works and artists, all from the African continent and its diaspora in Hamburg. Artists, activists and collectives address, in a critical sociopolitical and anthropological approach, the notions of ecology, nutrition, agriculture, food and resource use through a de-colonial and global perspective of the South.
“Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other” will welcome contemporary actors such as Minia Biabiany, CATPC (Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise), Ramata Coulibaly, Binta Diaw, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Tracey Rose, as well as guests such as Luvinsky Atche, Darlène Kassem, Nkhensani Mkhari, Ozoz Sokoh and Magda Tedla.
Much more than a simple exhibition, this is an artistic project that is divided into several parts. Initially, it will be presented as a two-month collective exhibition, highlighting sculptural, multimedia and installation works by artists Minia Biabiany, CATPC, Ramata Coulibaly, Binta Diaw, Luiza Prado de O. Martins and Tracey Rose.
The project will then offer three artist and research residencies, as well as accompanying events. The audience will be able to attend artist talks, culinary performances and a film screening, including cultural and culinary activists and actors such as Luvinsky Atche, Darlène Kassem, Nkhensani Mkhari, Ozoz Sokoh and Magda Tedla. Through this rich and engaging programme, these contemporary actors seek to address the themes of food, art and activism holistically and in collaboration with the Hamburg audience.
“Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other” asks visitors how Black and Afro-diasporic lived experiences influence food consumption and production. How can we refine our understanding of the roots of patriarchal capitalism and monopolistic agricultural systems? And beyond that, what forms of identity and connectivity can we identify in the food culture of Black and Afro-diasporic communities?
These are the questions that mark this major artistic project. Through the creative process, the artists, perceiving art and food as vectors of resistance and collective empowerment, are led to discuss these questions. By also involving the Hamburg public, they promote participation through discursive performances, visual interventions, and other participatory approaches, raising awareness about the importance of food and strategies of “feeding oneself” in order to remove marginalized communities from historical mechanisms of exploitation.
The geographical choice of the exhibition takes into account the strategic location of the city. Hamburg, a port city, has always played a role as a gateway to the colonial world, and the profits of shipping companies and local merchant families were closely linked to the theft of colonial resources and the enslavement of populations to cheap labor. Colonial products such as sugar, coffee and bananas are still consumed today, often without historical and transatlantic connections being taken into account. This resonates with the core discourses of the exhibition “Food, Art & Activism: Nourishing Ourselves and Each Other” and gives it greater symbolic value.