‘THE UPSHOT OF TRANS-AFFECTIVE SOLIDARITY’ proposes to explore a new image of humanity capable of valorising solidarity and critical knowledge coming from different contexts and cultures. The programme takes its title from what scholar Anne Garland Mahler calls “trans-affective solidarity” that relies on metonymic colour politics. An imagined transnational, transethnic, transracial, and translinguistic effective encounter in order to envision a more economically equitable, racially just, and human-centred world.
Evangelia Basdekis, My own two bodies, 2021. © the artist
The project presents work by 8 artists of diverse nationalities who provide an opportunity to reconsider how one can imagine another collective experience that would be capable of renewing our intersubjective ties in these uncertain times.
Participating artists: Mehraneh Atashi (Iran), Evangelia Basdekis (Greece/UK), Sabine Gruffat (USA), Shon Kim (South Korea), Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien (Ivory Coast), Muriel Paraboni (Brazil), Jhafis Quintero (Panama) & Johanna Barilier (Switzerland) and Ali Tnani (Tunisia)
‘THE UPSHOT OF TRANS-AFFECTIVE SOLIDARITY’ approaches its subject from a variety of perspectives, one of which involves the irresistible pull of intercultural meeting points and dreams around which people converge. Most of the works embrace a sense of reinvention and agency with the aim to shape various interpretative environments. They offer an expanded frame of reference that contributes to this heterogeneous engagement with video, film and the culture of solidarity these artists encapsulate. The programme is part of the exhibition ‘Approximationen Derivate Surrogate’ curated by Denise Ackermann and Frank Eckhardt.
Shon Kim, BOOKANIMA: Andy Warhol, 2019. © the artist
About the curator
Kisito Assangni is a Togolese-French curator and consultant who studied museology at Ecole du Louvre in Paris. Currently living between UK, France and Togo, his research interests gravitate towards the cultural impact of globalisation, psychogeography and critical education. He investigates the modes of cultural production that combine theory and practice. He inherently aims at going beyond the usual relations between artist, curator, institution, audience, and artwork, in order to engage audiences in encounters with art that are unexpected, transformative, and fun. Assangni is heavily involved in video, performance, and experimental sound. His discursive exhibitions have been shown internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Malmo Konsthall, Sweden; Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles; Es Baluard Museum of Art, Palma, Spain; National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow; Marrakech Biennale among others.
