By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

An exhibition of works by Ghanaian photographer Eric Gyamfi, featuring experimental large-format photographs, purpose-built and modified pinhole cameras used to produce them, process notes and annotations, and a library activation, is on view at the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FCA) in Accra. 

At first glance, it appears to be an exhibition about photography. But as one spends time with the images, it becomes clear that the camera here is less a machine for documentation and more a device for listening. The show moves away from the certainty traditionally associated with photography and instead embraces fragmentation, abstraction, and the instability of perception.

The exhibition’s title, “Stomata: Dr. Mahashe’s Open Frames,” is central to its philosophy. Gyamfi refuses closure. His photographs spill beyond their borders, suggesting that what is visible is only a fraction of a larger, more elusive reality.

Mirrors, layered exposures, shadows, and interruptions destabilize the image surface, producing photographs that feel suspended between memory, dream, and material fact. In Mirrored Interior – 9, repeating lines and fragmented pathways seem to stretch endlessly, creating an architectural maze that disorients the viewer and draws them deeper into the work. Indeed, space itself becomes uncertain.

What makes the exhibition compelling is the artist’s willingness to surrender control to chance. In works such as Mirrored Interior – 4 A & B, strategically positioned mirrors in front of cameras fracture and multiply the image, creating ghostly repetitions of the subjects.

These figures appear both present and absent at once, as though dissolving into the mechanics of the camera itself. The resulting photographs resist quick interpretation; they demand patience and prolonged looking.

Elsewhere, Gyamfi experiments with layered exposures and heat-manipulated imagery. In Mirage Test – Image M7 I & II, repeated exposures create dense visual textures that resemble hallucinations or fading memories.

Meanwhile, Plants & Heat – Untitled 12 & 13 pushes color and contrast to heightened extremes, producing images that vibrate with near-psychedelic intensity. Yet even at their most experimental, the photographs retain an emotional intimacy.

The exhibition succeeds by treating photography not as a finished product but as a living process of discovery. Gyamfi’s practice embraces uncertainty, improvisation, and what the synopsis calls “deep listening.” Rather than offering polished certainties, the artist invites viewers into moments of searching, hesitation, and wonder.

In an era dominated by instant digital images and endless visual consumption, “Stomata: Dr. Mahashe’s Open Frames” feels refreshingly meditative. It invites audiences to slow down and reconsider how photographs are made, how they behave, and how they might carry traces of the unseen. The result is an exhibition rich in curiosity, experimentation, and poetic depth.

The works in this show are selections from a larger project commissioned for the 59^th Carnegie International, which is concurrently on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (USA). It includes behind-the-scenes footage, journal entries, and additional work that is not included in the Carnegie show.

It felt crucial to present the work here in the context of its production. This presentation at FCA-Ghana foregrounds the rigorous technical aspects of the project and balances them with its poetic attributes, making it fitting for the space that supports process-based contemporary art practices.

Curated with abbey it-a, it ends on Saturday, June 20, 2026.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Nubuke Foundation is currently hosting Ghanaian artist Dr. Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, who transforms fabric, fiber, and found materials into an immersive meditation on identity and the politics of space.

Indeed, her latest solo exhibition, curated by N’Goné Fall, unfolds less like a conventional gallery display and more like a breathing organism, expanding and contracting through texture, symbolism, and movement.

Spread across nine interconnected works, the exhibition draws visitors into a tactile world built from recycled textiles, jute ropes, pandanus mats, kapok, and used handbags. Undeniably, Amenuke’s use of discarded and organic materials is not merely aesthetic.

These objects serve as repositories of lived experience, carrying traces of personal histories and collective memory. In her hands, reused fabrics become living archives that collapse distinctions among past and present, public and private, and individual and communal.

Among the most compelling works is the “Scroll” series, in which Amenuke explores language, communication, and coded systems of knowledge. Twisted jute ropes stitched onto hanging surfaces resemble ancient scripts or cryptic glyphs, suspended between the familiar and the unknowable.

The references to hieroglyphics and other symbolic writing systems lend the pieces an archaeological aura, as if viewers were encountering fragments of a forgotten civilization. Yet the works resist direct translation, preserving mystery as an essential part of their power.

Elsewhere, “The Strength Within” confronts gendered expectations and the invisible pressures placed on women in both traditional and modern societies. Constructed from macramé knots, ropes, and used handbags, the installation transforms everyday materials associated with femininity into a powerful commentary on resilience, confinement, and self-determination.

The exhibition reaches its most ambitious scale in “Habitation Variations” – two sprawling installations that dominate the gallery space with an almost unsettling presence. Here, Amenuke investigates borders, migration, territorial control, and the slow infiltration of one system into another.

The installations appear parasitic yet organic, spreading across walls and floors as if alive. Depending on one’s vantage point, forms merge and mutate into unfamiliar entities, creating a sense of instability that mirrors contemporary anxieties about displacement and contested spaces.

Amenuke’s exhibition succeeds by balancing conceptual depth with emotional resonance. Her materials speak softly yet insistently, reminding viewers that identity, history, and belonging are never fixed. She offers not merely objects to observe but environments to inhabit and reflect in.

Titled “Dreaming is a Map”, the exhibition ends on Saturday, May 30, 2026.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

In the restless visual economy of Accra, where billboards compete endlessly for attention with political slogans, telecom campaigns, and consumer fantasies, Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku interrupts the city’s advertising rhythm with something far more reflective.

His public installation project, Baleboards, transforms discarded secondhand clothing into monumental urban gestures, draped across billboard structures that typically serve as platforms for commerce and persuasion.

Indeed, the rise of fast fashion has had a deeply damaging impact on the environment, driven by the mass production of cheap clothing designed for short-term use and rapid disposal. The industry consumes enormous amounts of water, energy, and raw materials, while textile factories release harmful chemicals and dyes into rivers and ecosystems.

Synthetic fabrics such as polyester also contribute significantly to microplastic pollution, with tiny plastic fibers entering oceans during washing. In addition, the constant demand for new trends encourages excessive consumption, leading to mountains of discarded clothing in landfills, where many garments take decades to decompose.

Tieku’s intervention is simple in material yet powerful in implication. Using bale clothes — the secondhand garments imported into Ghana in overwhelming quantities — Tieku repositions what is often dismissed as economic residue at the center of public discourse. The result is an exhibition that feels less like decoration and more like a confrontation with the realities of consumption, identity, and global exchange.

Installed high above Accra’s streets, the works immediately alter the city’s visual atmosphere. Instead of polished advertisements promising aspiration, viewers encounter hanging fabrics that carry traces of anonymous lives, migration routes, and economic inequalities. The clothes appear almost ghostly against the urban skyline, fluttering with a quiet insistence that resists the loud certainty of commercial branding.

What makes Baleboards compelling is its ability to merge sculpture, activism, and street intervention without becoming overly didactic. Tieku does not merely criticize the secondhand clothing economy; he also acknowledges its integration into everyday Ghanaian life.

Undeniably, bale clothes are deeply woven into local markets, fashion cultures, and survival economies. By elevating them onto billboard structures, he reframes them as a burden, an archive, and a symbol of resilience.

The scale of the installations is central to their impact. Billboards are traditionally spaces of authority and visibility, designed to dominate public attention. Tieku effectively hijacks that language, turning advertising infrastructure into a site for reflection. In doing so, he questions who gets to occupy public space and which stories deserve amplification in the urban environment.

There is also a poetic tension in the works. The garments, stripped of their original owners, become suspended identities — fragments of global movement that hang over the city like unfinished narratives. Passersby are compelled to look upward, not toward consumer desire but toward histories of circulation, labor, and cultural dependency.

With Baleboards, Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku shows how public art can disrupt routine perception and prompt collective introspection. In a city saturated with commercial imagery, his installations reclaim visibility for overlooked materials and conversations, transforming Accra into an open-air site of cultural inquiry.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Works by Ghanaian artist Ewuresi Archer, currently on show at Berj Gallery in Accra, resist easy reading, opting instead for a layered, restless visual language that mirrors the anxieties of contemporary life.

Indeed, her practice is marked by an intuitive, almost feverish energy. Writing seeps into the compositions not as explanatory text but as fragments—interruptions that drift across the surface like fleeting thoughts.

Her brushstrokes carry urgency, yet they are far from empty gestures. Each mark feels loaded, bearing the weight of emotion, critique, and a searching intellect. The works appear to think aloud, circling their subjects, doubling back, and resisting the comfort of coherence. In Archer’s hands, disorder becomes method.

What makes this exhibition particularly compelling is its refusal to aestheticize discomfort. Archer is not interested in simply representing emotion; she interrogates a reality dulled by familiarity. The works push against what might be described as the “soft violence” of normalization—the gradual acceptance of environmental degradation, neglect, and excess.

Plastic waste, nets, ropes, and synthetic debris are not incidental materials here; they are central to the narrative. By embedding them into her canvases, Archer denies viewers the luxury of detachment. The refuse we overlook is made insistently visible.

Materiality plays a crucial role in this visual language. Batik fabrics serve as her ground, layered with paint, chalk pastel, and yarn, creating surfaces that feel dense and tactile. These accumulations speak of both intimacy and overload, suggesting lives entangled in cycles of consumption and survival.

Her sculptural works extend this conversation into space: crocheted forms made from cut-up T-shirts and intertwined with found debris hang with a quiet tension, held together by fragments of discarded fishnet. They evoke fragility, improvisation, and a sense of precarious endurance.

There is beauty in Archer’s work, but it is never separate from what has been cast aside. Instead, it emerges through entanglement—through the uneasy coexistence of care and neglect, creation and ruin.

Curated by Nana Yaa Poku Asare Boadu, she offers no neat conclusions in this exhibition. What she provides instead is a sharp, poetic insistence that we look again at what we have learned to ignore—and reconsider the cost of calling it normal.

Titled “A Love Letter With Teeth”, the exhibition ends on Sunday, June 7, 2026.

By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Senegalese artist Caroline Gueye will present “Wurus,” an installation linking the celestial origin of gold to Senegal’s history, at the Senegalese pavilion during the 61^st edition of the Venice Biennale, which opens on Saturday, May 9, 2026.

Curated by Massamba Mbaye, the exhibition examines issues related to resources, memory, and the construction of gold’s value through a unique scientific and artistic approach – from the cosmic origin of gold to the mechanisms of perception, it brings together fundamental science and aesthetic experience.

In “Wurus” (gold in Wolof), Gueye creates an installation featuring works in polymer, bronze, and brass, prompting a contemporary reflection on resource extraction, environmental issues, and human rights, while also questioning notions of materiality and the perception of value.

Here, gold serves as a point of departure rather than the project’s subject: it enables the unfolding of historical, symbolic, and contemporary dimensions and invites a broader reflection on how the notion of value emerges.

Designed in dialogue with the venue’s architecture, the exhibition reconfigures the space as a perceptual journey in which some works appear through openings, while others are embedded in wall-based devices that engage the body and shift the conditions of perception.

Through these optical and perceptual effects, the artist displaces the question of value: it no longer resides in the object itself but in the gaze that constructs it. For the artist, art emerges from space itself: seeing becomes a physical experience, and the exhibition space becomes integral to the work.

Undeniably, her training in physics, particularly in astrophysics and atomic physics, does not define her practice; rather, it serves as a conceptual tool that supports autonomous artistic inquiry.

Gueye’s international background, enriched by studying Mandarin in China, informs a practice attentive to cultural circulation and to diverse ways of apprehending the world, and asserts a singular artistic approach at the intersection of science, cultures, and contemporary forms.

By John Owoo

(Lomé – Togo)

A mind-blowing discussion featuring academics – Dr. Anas Atakora and Dr. Patron Henekou – recently captivated an attentive audience at the Maison des Arts et du Social in Lomé, as part of a series titled “Carte Blanche”.

Coordinated by noocultures.info, the program, which is part of the Biennale of Public Space Arts in Togo’s OFF program, provided the audience with informative content that sparked questions and contributions from patrons.

Atakora and Henekou quickly set the tone for a fluid, almost intimate exchange. Their discussion, grounded in shared intellectual foundations, avoided oversimplification while making complex ideas accessible without diluting their depth. It struck a careful balance between rigor and openness.

Central to the encounter was a performative reading of excerpts from Atakora’s poems  En chair et en ville (Les Éditions de la Francophonie, 2025) and La vie que nous menons ici (Les Éditions Awoudy, 2023). These works outline a poetic universe in which the city is anything but passive. In Atakora’s writing, urban space exerts force—it imprints itself on bodies, imposes constraints, and shapes lived experience.

While such themes are not new to contemporary poetry, Atakora approaches them through a sensorial lens. His writing seeks less to describe the city than to make it physically felt, emphasizing that urban life is defined not only by infrastructure but also by intimate, personal experience. For him, “being a poet today is an urgency”—a call to slow down and restore depth to existence in environments that often flatten sensation and perception.

An underlying question lingers: is this sense of urgency unique to Atakora’s voice, or does it reflect a broader current in contemporary poetry? The discussion subtly invited the audience to consider this tension.

The exchange also ventured into more personal territory. Moving beyond theory, Atakora reflected on the foundational figures in his imagination—his mother, grandmother, and father—and on how they continue to shape his work. This perspective sheds light on his debut collection, Partir pour les mots (Les Éditions Awoudy, 2012), revealing a consistent trajectory of movement and displacement.

Undeniably, Atakora’s writing is defined by a dynamic interplay between here and elsewhere. This dual anchoring enriches his relationship with language and informs a body of work that continues to evolve. With eight publications to his name, he has established a solid literary path, and his frequent returns to Lomé signal a commitment to staying connected to his roots.

Beyond the strength of his texts, the event ultimately highlighted Atakora’s positioning as a poet whose work serves as a form of sensitive resistance—an attempt to confront and make sense of the rapid transformations of urban life.

By John Owoo

(Lomé – Togo)

Togo Jazz Festival is, without a doubt, one of West Africa’s most vibrant cultural gatherings, reaffirming Togo’s growing reputation as a hub for jazz and contemporary African music.

The 2026 edition (April 20–26) unfolded across Lomé and other cities in Togo, bringing together a diverse mix of local and international artists for a weeklong celebration of sound, culture, and creative exchange. 

Now in its 12th edition, the festival has become a major platform bridging jazz, African musical traditions, and global influences. Its programming typically reflects a deliberate fusion of genres—ranging from classic and contemporary jazz to Afrobeat, highlife, and experimental world music—positioning jazz not only as a genre but as a universal language shaped by African rhythms and diasporic connections.

The 2026 edition is described as having renewed ambition and an exceptional artistic lineup, continuing the festival’s commitment to showcasing both established names and emerging talent. Beyond performances, the event emphasized professional development, artistic collaboration, and networking opportunities for musicians and cultural practitioners.

A defining feature of the Togo Jazz Festival is its role in fostering intercultural dialogue. By inviting artists from across Africa and beyond, the festival becomes a meeting point where diverse musical traditions intersect, encouraging experimentation and cross-cultural collaborations. This spirit of exchange reinforces the festival’s broader mission: to celebrate creativity while strengthening cultural ties within the region and internationally.

Equally significant is the festival’s contribution to Togo’s cultural visibility. Over the years, it has helped position the country as a key destination on the African festival circuit, drawing audiences, industry professionals, and tourists. In doing so, it supports the local creative economy and highlights the richness of Togolese cultural heritage.

Ultimately, the 2026 Togo Jazz Festival is more than a series of concerts—it is an immersive cultural experience. Through its blend of music, education, and cultural exchange, it affirms jazz’s enduring relevance and celebrates Africa’s dynamic and evolving artistic landscape.

By John Owoo

(Lomé – Togo)

A collaboration between Esinam Dogbatse (Belgium/Ghana) and Sibusile Xaba (South Africa) unfolded as a deeply immersive sonic ritual—less a concert than a spiritual gathering shaped by ancestry, improvisation, and transcendence.

Performing at the 2026 edition of the Togo Jazz Festival, the duo created an atmosphere that felt both intimate and expansive. Esinam, moving seamlessly among flute, synthesizers, percussion, and voice, crafted airy, meditative textures that floated above the ground rhythms.

Opposite her, Xaba’s guitar work—at once delicate and percussive—anchored the performance with an earthy resonance, while his vocals carried a raw, almost ancestral urgency. Together, they forged a dialogue that blurred geographical and cultural boundaries, merging Belgian-Ghanaian and KwaZulu-Natal influences into a singular, fluid expression.

The set leaned into what could best be described as Afro-roots-electro with a spiritual jazz sensibility. Yet labels quickly fell short. What emerged instead was a constantly shifting soundscape, where Ghanaian highlife echoes met Zulu and Ewe traditional motifs, all filtered through contemporary electronic manipulation. Looped rhythms intertwined with live instrumentation, building hypnotic grooves that drew the audience into a trance-like state.

Central to the performance was the duo’s use of vocal chanting—not as mere embellishment, but as a driving force. Their voices rose and fell in cyclical patterns, invoking something ancient yet forward-looking. These chants, layered over intricate rhythmic structures, transformed the stage into a space of storytelling without words, where emotion and memory took precedence over literal meaning.

There was a palpable sense of “cross-pollination” throughout the evening. Each piece felt like a living organism, evolving in real time as the artists responded intuitively to one another. Esinam’s electronic textures would swell and recede, making room for Xaba’s guitar lines to stretch and breathe before converging again into dense, pulsating climaxes. The result was music that felt alive—organic despite its electronic elements, grounded despite its cosmic reach.

The audience, initially observant, gradually succumbed to the performance’s hypnotic pull. Subtle head nods gave way to full-body swaying as the duo’s grooves deepened and expanded. By the final moments, the boundary between performer and spectator had all but dissolved.

At a festival known for celebrating jazz in its many forms, Esinam and Sibusile Xaba offered something profoundly distinct: a reminder that jazz, at its core, is not just a genre but a spirit of exploration. Their performance stood as a testament to music’s power to connect past and present, tradition and innovation—an experience that lingered long after the final note faded.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

By John Owoo

(Lomé – Togo)

At the Togo Jazz Festival 2026, the “Brass Vibes” concert, held at the Institut Français du Togo, brought together three distinctive ensembles—MGG Brass Band, Assia Brass Band, and Kale Brass Band—for an evening celebrating both tradition and experimentation in West Africa’s evolving brass culture.

Opening the night, MGG Brass Band set a reflective tone with a performance rooted in musical heritage. Their approach leaned toward reinterpretation rather than reinvention, drawing on familiar traditional motifs and reshaping them through layered horn arrangements.

The ensemble’s strength lay in its cohesion: tight harmonies, disciplined transitions, and a measured build that gradually drew the audience into its sonic world. Rather than overwhelming the audience with spectacle, MGG opted for subtlety and control, offering a set that felt both respectful of the past and quietly contemporary.

Kale Brass Band delivered the most eclectic and high-octane set of the night. Their sound, an infectious blend of vodou rhythms, jazz phrasing, and funk sensibilities, transformed the stage into a pulsating space of rhythm and motion.

Unlike the more restrained opening act, Kale embraced theatricality—band members moved freely, interacting with one another and the audience, transforming the performance into a communal experience. Their ability to shift from hypnotic, trance-like grooves to explosive, brass-driven climaxes demonstrated both versatility and confidence.

Assia Brass Band followed, bringing a noticeable shift in energy. The Benin-based group injected the evening with vibrancy and urgency, immediately commanding attention with sharp brass accents and a confident stage presence. Their set thrived on contrasts—fast-paced passages collided with slower, groove-heavy moments, creating a dynamic push-and-pull that kept the audience engaged. 

Precision was central to their performance, but so was flair; synchronized movements and expressive delivery elevated their music beyond sound, transforming it into a visual experience. It was a performance that balanced technical finesse with crowd-pleasing vitality.

Together, the three bands offered a compelling cross-section of contemporary brass expression across the region. From MGG’s rooted introspection to Assia’s polished dynamism and Kale’s genre-blurring exuberance, the evening underscored the richness and diversity of West Africa’s brass tradition. 

More than just a concert, “Brass Vibes” became a statement: that brass music here is not static but alive—constantly negotiating among history, innovation, and performance energy.

By John Owoo

(Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire)

During the 14th edition of the Market for African Performing Arts Festival (MASA), it is not only the performances that command attention—the set design itself has emerged as a striking centerpiece, particularly under the glow of nightfall.

Conceived by Les Ateliers PDG under the artistic direction of renowned choreographer Georges Momboye, the stage architecture offers a bold visual narrative that mirrors the dynamism of contemporary African performance.

Spread across two expansive platforms—one measuring 16 by 12 meters and elevated at 1.5 meters, the other slightly lower at 36 centimeters—the design is as functional as it is symbolic.

Built to withstand both the unpredictability of the elements and the physical intensity of large-scale dance productions, the structure accommodates hundreds of performers with ease. From high-impact jumps to complex ensemble formations, the stage proves resilient, underscoring the technical foresight behind its construction.

Visually, the set transforms into a luminous cityscape at night. Rows of illuminated architectural forms evoke the skyline of Abidjan, with a central feature—Tower F—rising to an impressive 6.5 meters.

This vertical dominance anchors the composition, creating a focal point that draws the audience’s gaze. On either side of the stage, mirrored replicas of the iconic ADO Bridge extend the urban metaphor, paying homage to one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most recognizable infrastructural landmarks.

Beyond its architectural references, the set design integrates sculptural elements that reflect MASA’s multidisciplinary spirit. Figures representing dance, music, and theatre are seamlessly embedded within the structure, reinforcing the festival’s role as a convergence point for diverse artistic expressions. These elements do not merely decorate the space—they animate it, creating a dialogue between performers and their environment.

Flanking the stage are monumental elephant sculptures, a powerful nod to the national symbol of Côte d’Ivoire. Their presence adds both grandeur and cultural resonance, grounding the contemporary aesthetic in a sense of identity and heritage.

For Momboye and his team, the project presented significant challenges, from engineering durability to achieving visual coherence on such a scale. Yet the result is a triumph—an immersive сценography that elevates the festival experience.

As MASA 2026 unfolds, the set stands not just as a backdrop but as a living, breathing participant in the artistic narrative, signaling new possibilities for stage design across the continent.