By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

At Gallery 1957’s Unlimited Space in Accra, Serge Attukwei Clottey turns personal memory and collective history into an immersive terrain of material, scent, and sound.

Titled [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, the exhibition marks a reflective homecoming to Jamestown, the coastal enclave tied to his paternal lineage. But this is no nostalgic return—it is an excavation of endurance, adaptation, and the quiet intelligence embedded in daily survival.

During a three-month residency at the old City Engineer’s Building, Clottey encountered Jamestown anew—the acrid scent of burning tires, crashing waves, street chatter, and radio melodies filtering through the air.

Curated by Ato Annan and Allotey Bruce-Konuah, these impressions infuse the exhibition’s sensory field, where materials breathe with memory. His yellow jerrycan panels—cut, stitched, and sutured with copper wire—form luminous tapestries that shimmer between beauty and decay. They evoke both the scarcity and resourcefulness of communities that transform remnants into renewal.

Clottey’s ongoing concept of “Afrogallonism” anchors the show, using the ubiquitous plastic jerrycan as a metaphor for survival and resilience in West Africa. Once a vessel of necessity, the jerrycan becomes an emblem of creative resistance. In his hands, discarded plastic is reborn into monumental forms that hold stories of migration, labour, and environmental precarity.

The exhibition extends beyond material assemblage. Disassembled wooden canoes, melted jerrycan sculptures, and charcoal drawings mirror the rhythms of communal life along Ghana’s coast—fragile, industrious, and improvisational. Collaboration also emerges as a theme, notably in paintings created with Clottey’s son, bridging generations through shared gestures and creating.

What emerges is less an exhibition than an unfolding ritual—a choreography of labour and transformation. Clottey redefines resilience not as endurance through hardship but as an active, creative intelligence. His work resists the passivity often ascribed to survival, instead asserting it as a cultural form —a philosophy born of necessity.

In [Dis]Appearing Rituals, material becomes memory, and memory becomes resistance. The familiar yellows of jerrycans, the dark grain of wood, and the faint echo of the sea together create a living archive of a community’s will to endure. Clottey’s Jamestown is not disappearing—it is reinventing itself, one stitch, one scar, one story at a time.

The exhibition concludes on Saturday, January 3, 2026.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

An exhibition of pictures by the late American photographer Willis Bell, titled “Light and Shadow: A Movement in Stills,” concluded last month in Accra.

Indeed, the exhibition presents a remarkable selection of his photographs, prints, and negatives, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience his vision of Ghana in the years following independence.

Bell, who made Ghana his home during the transformative 1960s, chronicled the nation’s evolution with both intimacy and breadth. His lens captured the collective energy of a country finding its footing under Kwame Nkrumah, tracing the momentum of independence through parades, rallies, and public celebrations.

Yet, Bell’s sensitivity extended beyond grand gestures. His photographs linger on dancers mid-step, children at play, and workers immersed in their tasks, while revealing the subtle choreography of daily life.

The exhibition’s title, Light and Shadow, aptly reflects Bell’s mastery of contrast—not only in tone and texture but also in meaning. Through the interplay of illumination and obscurity, the images meditate on what is visible and what remains hidden, what is preserved and what fades away.

Noted for documenting vernacular and political life in Ghana during the post-colonial period (1957-1978), Bell’s photographs inhabit the tension between optimism and uncertainty, embodying the light and shadow of a young nation’s aspirations.

Curated with scholarly precision, the exhibition also acknowledges the meticulous archival work that has brought Bell’s oeuvre to light. The effort to digitize, conserve, and reinterpret his photographs transforms them from historical artefacts into living testaments of Ghana’s cultural memory. These images speak to both the past and present—reminding viewers that history is a continuous movement, not a static record.

Set within the serene grounds of Mmofra Place, a space steeped in artistic and civic heritage, the exhibition invites reflection. Here, Bell’s images resonate not only as documentation but as poetic meditations on becoming—a reminder that independence was lived through gestures as much as through politics.

The Willis Bell Archive holds over 48,500 original photographic negatives and prints. Notable for its extensive scope, the archive documents a pivotal period in Ghanaian history, showcasing key political figures, significant events, industrialization efforts, and everyday life in communities across Ghana following independence.

Mmofra Foundation will digitize 4,375 photographic prints from the archive, preserving this valuable heritage resource and enhancing its accessibility by publishing it in the Modern Endangered Archives Programme’s open-access repository.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Ghanaian-born, U.S.-based painter Otis Quaicoe makes a compelling return home with “Where the Waters Meet”, his first solo exhibition in Ghana at Gallery 1957. Indeed, the show marks a deeply personal moment in the artist’s career, reflecting on themes of belonging, freedom, and the radical necessity of rest.

His new body of work draws on his memories of Ghana and his experiences in the United States, bridging two worlds through the metaphor of water. Pools and oceans become spaces of ease and reclamation, where black bodies—long politicised in art and history—can exist in leisure. It’s a subtle yet powerful statement about self-possession and joy.

Rendered in a restrained palette of black and grey, Quaicoe’s portraits possess a quiet confidence. His tonal approach heightens the sculptural quality of his figures, who emerge with luminous presence against soft, dreamlike backgrounds. The technique allows him to shift focus from spectacle to emotion—from representation to reflection.

The artist recreates a vivid beach scene, spreading fine sand evenly across a large plastic sheet to evoke the shoreline. Scattered throughout the installation were traces of human presence—discarded plastic cups, worn children’s toys, and elegant beach chairs—arranged beneath a brightly multicoloured umbrella that conjured both leisure and environmental decay.

“In Intermission II,” a woman reclines beside a swimming pool, her book and drink suggesting a moment of calm. Yet her hand pauses mid-page, hinting at an undercurrent of unease. The stillness feels momentary, as if rest itself requires negotiation. Elsewhere, in “Diver”, a figure leaps toward water—an act of faith and release. Suspended between sky and sea, she embodies the exhibition’s central idea: that surrender can also be liberation.

Beyond its painterly grace, “Where the Waters Meet” resonates as a meditation on the diaspora experience. The title evokes the Atlantic Ocean, which connects Ghana to the broader Black world, suggesting a confluence rather than a separation. It also mirrors the artist’s own journey between his base in the US and Accra, as well as the broader desire for balance between mobility and a sense of home.

What stands out most is Quaicoe’s ability to translate personal emotion into collective experience. His paintings do not shout; they breathe. Through them, rest becomes both aesthetic and political—a way of reclaiming space and presence.

“Where the Waters Meet” is a mature, reflective exhibition from an artist attuned to both his origins and his evolution. It affirms Quaicoe as a painter who continues to expand the visual language of Black representation—this time, with quiet grace and depth.

The exhibition ends on Saturday, January 3, 2026.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Nubuke Foundation in Accra hosted Dr. Senam Okudzeto’s first solo exhibition in Ghana—and on the African continent—and it unfolded like a long-awaited homecoming.

Known for her mixed-media installations that blend social history, theory, and the politics of identity, Okudzeto shares a more personal side of her artistic journey: a collection of two-dimensional works created between 2002 and 2025.

These paintings and drawings, many from Ghanaian collections and the artist’s own archive, serve as a meditation on the language of the body. In them, gestures, movements, and subtle postures form a visual vocabulary through which she explores identity, presence, and the passage of time. 

Her fascination with semiotic gesture—the body’s ability to communicate beyond words—is clear throughout. For instance, in “Turquoise Repose” (2023), the curve of a body transforms into an imagined landscape, simultaneously mountain and wave, suggesting both the stillness of dawn and the pull of the deep sea.

Curator and art historian Carla Patricia Kojich places these works within Okudzeto’s ongoing exploration of identity and cultural stories. The artist’s brush acts as a mirror—exploring the links between personal memory, dance, and diaspora experiences. In each piece, abstraction and figuration blend, suggesting movement even during moments of stillness.

What sets this exhibition apart is its quiet intensity. Okudzeto avoids the spectacular in favor of the meditative. Each work invites the viewer to slow down, to feel rather than decode. The rhythm of her compositions echoes the pulse of breath, the shifting of light on skin, or the suspended motion of dance caught mid-gesture.

Beyond its aesthetic achievements, the exhibition holds symbolic significance. It reconnects the artist—an internationally acclaimed Ghanaian—to her roots, while providing Ghanaian audiences an opportunity to experience her work. It is a return not only for the artist but also for ideas, forms, and histories to familiar ground.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1995 and a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in 1997. Okudzeto continued her postgraduate studies through the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP) at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University (USA). She obtained a doctorate in Humanities and Cultural Studies from the London Consortium and Birkbeck, University of London (UK), in 2022.

Since 1998, Okudzeto has developed ‘conceptual drawing’ workshops that combine practical and theoretical approaches to drawing. These workshops have recently been taught at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC), The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Yaba College of Technology, as part of the international exchange program she organized while serving as the ENSAPC visiting professor during 2018 and 2019. 

With this thoughtful and understated presentation, Nubuke Foundation reaffirms its place as a vital space for reflection and renewal in contemporary African art.

The exhibition ended on Sunday, October 11, 2025.

By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

German-Ghanaian dancer Isabel Kwarteng-Acheampong thrilled a nearly full audience at Ufer Studios last week with a performance that combines movement language inspired by a dialogue between tradition and modern urgency. 

In a remarkable performance on the final day of Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025, she showcased gestures rooted in Ashanti dance styles, breaking into sharp, fragmented movements that seemed to express frustration with discrimination. 

These shifts are not random outbursts but carefully measured responses — a negotiation between restraint and release, as if the body itself is learning how to turn rage into resilience. In the stillness, a lone drummer layers the show with refreshing rhythms from Ashanti’s talking drums. 

Moments of stillness punctuate the performance, creating silence heavy with anticipation — a counterpoint to the bursts of rhythm and flow. This oscillation between calm and turbulence reflects the central theme: navigating the contradictions of living as a Black queer person in a society that constantly questions one’s existence.

What resonates most is not a story resolution, but the feeling of endurance. By embracing her Ashanti roots while also recognizing her German identity, she refuses to let one erase the other. Instead, she builds a bridge between them, showing that hybridity itself can be a powerful act of self-preservation.

The performance leaves the audience with the feeling of having experienced an intimate ritual — not closure, but an invitation to embrace complexity. In doing so, Kwarteng-Acheampong transforms personal struggle into collective reflection, emphasizing that resistance can be as much about care and continuity as it is about confrontation.

Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025 is being sponsored by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, Ufer Studios, Theatre Haus Berlin, Kulturplakatierung Dinamix, Rausgegangen and Tip Berlin.

By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

“Yêrêwolo,” a mesmerizing duet performed by dancers whose bodies have been masterfully shaped by their skilled craft, acted as both a choreographic exploration and a political statement at the ongoing Kuyum Tanzplattform at the Ufer Studios in Berlin.  

Choreographed by Ahmed Soura, who also performed as a dancer, the piece, which draws inspiration from the ideologies of the former and current Burkinabe revolutionary leaders Thomas Sankara and Ibrahim Traoré, explores how systems of oppression and dependency continue to influence modern society.

With music by Compassion Image and Gambo Roch Dja and a minimal scenography made of sacks, the performance imagines pathways of resistance—a rebellious community that aims to harness its own internal resources, break free from external domination, and claim sovereignty.

Although the artists moved in unison, they displayed different movements as they crisscrossed the stage while calling for autonomy and collective self-determination. Indeed, they pushed themselves into heightened awareness, turning their bodies into sites of labor and liberation while excavating layers of memory, struggle, and transformation.

Conceptualized by Felix Dompreh, movements fluctuated between defiance and grounded resilience, embodying both the weight of history and the potential for emancipation. The dancers’ bodies, marked by intensity and endurance, show how physical practice itself can serve as an act of rebellion.

In another performance, Camille Badirou took the audience through a solo piece that explored memory, trauma, and resilience while showing the body as an archive and instrument of resistance. Indeed, it confronts the wounds and silences left by slavery and colonialism, refusing to let them remain buried beneath the weight of history.

Titled “Na Kalonia,” the choreography demonstrates a physical focus that feels both deeply rooted and uncontainable. In fact, gestures shift between grounded weight and expressive movement, not only remembering history but reimagining it and providing strength for the present.

It celebrates cultural identity and the courage to embrace it fully, reminding us that memory—collective, embodied, and ancestral—can be a tool of empowerment. With its relentless energy, the piece not only preserves history but also reimagines it, offering strength for today.

Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025 is being sponsored by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, Ufer Studios, Theatre Haus Berlin, Kulturplakatierung Dinamix, Rausgegangen and Tip Berlin.

By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

“L-Movement,” a piece choreographed by Yayi Nestor Gahe, charmed an excited audience at the Ufer Studios with its powerful reflection on laughter—not just as a passing feeling but as a force that shapes our humanity. 

Through flowing, pulsating, and often unexpected movements, the dancers express laughter’s roots in the body, turning it from sound into visible energy. The result is a unique movement language that connects the primal and the modern.

Undeniably, the performance, which formed part of Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025, highlights laughter’s duality: its power to bring people together across boundaries and its tendency to be suppressed by social norms. This tension was expertly expressed through the dancers’ shifts between free/expansive gestures and moments of restraint, almost as if laughter itself was being suppressed. 

Instead of giving a literal meaning, “L-Movement” became a vivid metaphor—truly a tribute to laughter’s power to connect, disrupt, and heal. By combining physical exploration with emotional depth, the piece goes beyond entertainment to become an invitation: to feel, to remember, and to laugh again without limits.

Without a doubt, the piece reminds us that laughter comes before language and remains a universal way of communicating. The choreography reflected the carefree laughter of children while also encouraging audiences to rediscover that wild, unrestrained energy within themselves.

Instead of a literal interpretation, the piece becomes a living metaphor—a tribute to laughter’s power to connect, disrupt, and heal. By blending bodily exploration with emotional depth, “L-Movement” goes beyond entertainment to serve as an invitation: to feel, to remember, and to laugh again without boundaries.

“Underneath Climate Cracks – The Dying African Philosophy”, a piece choreographed and performed by Michael Kaddu, is rooted in memory and tradition. The artist reimagines rainmaking rituals as both a cultural inheritance and a contemporary ecological reflection.

The audience watched in awe as the piece unfolded with Kaddu’s heartfelt memory of his mother’s role as a rainmaker. The piece creates an intensely personal yet universally relatable tone. It is not only about the loss of ritual but also about the vulnerability of traditions that once connected humans and nature.

Indeed, the performance redefines ritual as ecological wisdom rather than superstition. At a time when rainmaking practices are fading, the work emphasizes their importance as a record of environmental knowledge. Through movement and song, the performers not only honor a disappearing tradition but also demonstrate its relevance for modern discussions on sustainability and climate.

By connecting ritual, memory, and ecology, the performance offers more than just a reverence to the rainmakers of the past. It encourages audiences to consider how embodied knowledge—expressed through dance, ritual, and community practice—can help us reconnect with nature and rethink our relationship with the environment amid global change.

Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025 is being sponsored by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, Ufer Studios, Theatre Haus Berlin, Kulturplakatierung Dinamix, Rausgegangen and Tip Berlin.

Pix – thabu thindi

By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

The 2025 edition of Kuyum Tanzplattform opened on Wednesday at the Ufer Studios in Berlin with a magnetic performance by Julienne Doko and Kyrie Oda that unfolds as an intimate dialogue between language and movement, probing the fragile yet resilient strands that bind human identity.

As music flowed from loudspeakers and a musician, they stood apart on the dimly lit stage, their bodies illuminated by shifting pools of light that echoed the ebb and flow of their exchanges. Indeed, the sparse atmosphere comprising a bare stage with minimal props enabled the audience to focus on the textures of movement and voice.

Undeniably, the performance resists linear storytelling, offering instead a tapestry of gestures, silences, and spoken fragments. Diverse arm movements, mostly freezing at their backs, linger like an unspoken question—indeed, a spiraling turn that collapses into stillness alongside words that erupt only to dissolve back into breath. 

Choreographed by both dancers, each action on stage feels charged, embodying both personal memory and collective heritage. The duet makes visible the invisible threads of identity, showing how culture, language, and history move through the body, enabling the audience to decipher the similarities and differences.

Indeed, sound design enhances this effect — subtle rhythms, fragments of speech, and moments of silence punctuate the choreography, highlighting the porous boundary between expression and silence, memory and forgetting – while urging us to reflect on how we define ourselves in relation to others. 

In a profoundly moving performance titled “10 Years of Becoming”, Samwel Japhet chronicles his transformative journey from the streets of several Tanzanian cities to a place of self-discovery and belonging.

The performance skillfully intertwines movement and storytelling, capturing the complex layers of Japhet’s past—the hardship of homelessness, experiences of abuse, and the emotional turbulence of youth. Each gesture and choreographed sequence seems to carry the weight of memory, yet also radiates resilience, hope, and the human capacity to overcome adversity.

His use of space, tempo, and bodily expression draws the audience into a narrative that is as much about individual healing as it is about collective experience. There is a palpable sense of intimacy, allowing viewers to witness not just the evolution of a dancer, but the evolution of a human being reclaiming his story. The performance honors the past while celebrating the triumphs that have shaped him into the person he is today.

Beyond its autobiographical core, the piece equally serves as a testament to those who have endured social marginalization, yet found ways to navigate adversity, forge new paths, and create meaning in their lives. It is a work that resonates deeply, inspiring reflection on resilience, empathy, and the transformative power of art.

Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025 is being sponsored by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, Ufer Studios, Theatre Haus Berlin, Kulturplakatierung Dinamix, Rausgegangen and Tip Berlin.

Pix – thabo thindi

By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

The five-day Berlin Art Week – a citywide festival of fairs, exhibitions, and performances, which ended on Sunday, September 14 — attracted over 140,000 visitors from diverse countries, thereby shifting the emphasis from culture to economics and commerce.

Although detailed sales figures remain largely unavailable, the scale of attendance underscores the event’s significant reach. The week featured over 100 exhibition openings and more than 300 events, drawing visitors from within Germany and abroad.

Participants and observers see the Art Week as a significant economic driver of the contemporary art market in Germany. It offers a marketplace for sales, gallery exposure, collector connections, and international visibility. These, in turn, generate long-term economic benefits: sales, commissions, and reputational expansions.

Beyond direct art‐market revenues, the festival week boosts the broader local economy – hotels, restaurants, cafes, transportation, retail, and tourism. Indeed, Berlin gains not just from spending by visitors to fairs and exhibitions, but also from longer stays, cultural tourism, and international interest. 

Artsworks on display revealed some of the most experimental, cross-disciplinary work in over twenty-five project spaces, and special initiatives that featured unusual formats, community-run or nomadic studios, and curatorial experiments. “Gallery Night” and “Featured Night” extended openings across the city, enabling audiences to follow paths through urban streets filled with art.

Undeniably, Open Houses, Discovering Collections, and group shows addressed urgent social themes — home, belonging, migration, place, and resistance — giving the festival not just aesthetic scope but also political and social significance through issues that resonate in Europe and all parts of the globe.

Berlin Art Week 2025 showcased a mix of established names and emerging voices. Focal points include Petrit Halilaj at Hamburger Bahnhof; Cornelia Parker, Erik Schmidt, Phoebe Collings-James, and Cihad Caner at Kindl; Issy Wood at Schinkel Pavillon; Jordan Strafer at Fluentum; and Jiyoung Yoon at daadgalerie.

Despite its success, Berlin Art Week faces challenges. Funding cuts in cultural budgets, especially support for independent and project spaces, threaten the infrastructure that enables much of its innovative programming. Ensuring affordability for artists, galleries, and audiences, maintaining venues, and preserving diversity of voices are ongoing concerns in the face of rising costs.

Nevertheless, it reaffirmed the city’s status as a centre for contemporary art that both shapes and reflects global cultural currents. Its scale, diversity of formats, and mix of commercially successful and socially engaged art made it more than a festival — it was an ecosystem in action. As the art world watches, Berlin continues to offer a model for how art, commerce, and public life can intersect in a powerful and inspiring way.

All photos are from the Berlin Art Fair – Tempelhof