Kuchukua Hatua: The de-objectification of black femininity through the power of the erotic
Kuchukua Hatua is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote the culture of Africa and its diaspora and use it as a tool to raise awareness.
Kuchukua Hatua is bringing together 7 artists to create works of art based on Aurdrey Lorde's speech "The Erotic". These works will then be exhibited. This exhibition will function as an educational space where several workshops will be offered. At the opening, there will be a round table discussion on the objectification of black femininity. On the basis of this discussion, the context of the exhibition will be discussed, as well as the need to address this issue. The workshops on the following days will be organised around the same themes.
In contemporary society, black women are still objectified and hypersexualised. This objectification not only creates stereotypes, but also makes black women more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Using art, Kuchukua Hatua maps the underlying mechanism that manifests itself in this objectification. Furthermore, with this exhibition, the organisation wants to honour black femininity and make it representative and inclusive. This exhibition gives space, time and space to embrace black femininity in all its complexities and dimensions.
Mandji - Listen to diversity!
MANDJi is a Belgian non-profit organisation that has been accompanying and supporting musical artists in Africa for 10 years through various activities such as masterclasses and workshops. It also organises cultural events in Belgium to enable the public and cultural professionals to discover new musical projects and new talents with a link to Africa.
"Écoute la diversité" aims to raise awareness of cultural mixing and the prejudices that most people have about people from the African continent. To this end, singer Shama BONGO - from Congo Brazzaville - and DJ and sound composer Rokia BAMBA - from Mali - will be joining forces to create a bank of sound tools that the public can listen to through headphones. Workshops will be organised around this activity, giving the public the chance to ask themselves questions. By listening to these sound tools, telling the group what they have awakened in them and analysing the feedback without judgement, the participants will be engaged in a process of reflection and social transformation.
The general theme of the proposal is a reflection on tolerance, mutual respect and the world of tomorrow. For the project leaders, it's by taking the time to take stock of what we find in what we call 'our rucksack of life', by taking the time to question the emotions generated by these songs, texts and sound effects that we will be able to make our own introspection. The workshops are aimed at adults who work in teams made up of people from different cultural backgrounds and those who work with/for a mixed audience.
Source Plurielle - Welcome to our home: A show and practical, reflective workshops on the past-present connections between Europe and Africa
Source Plurielle is an artistic platform offering educational and cultural support with the aim of helping people, particularly children and teenagers, to fulfil their potential. The multi-disciplinary team is made up of artists, artistic facilitators and educators, and works mainly through artistic activities: the performing arts, the visual arts and the audiovisual arts.
Welcome to our home: A performance and practical, reflective workshops on the past-present connections between Europe and Africa" is a package offering :
- Welcome Home" by and about Apollinaire Djouomou, a show at the crossroads of storytelling and theatre, portraying a man with a complex identity.
- A one-day visit to the AfricaMuseum to provide keys to understanding colonial and post-colonial history.
- An introductory workshop on the oral tradition and African literature to explore the question of how stories and history are passed on.
- An in-class verbal jousting workshop: to debate the questions raised earlier on the interdependence between Africa and Europe.
The general theme of the project covers the historical links between Europe and Africa, past and present, and the construction of plural identities. Aimed primarily at teenagers aged between 14 and 18, the project aims to raise awareness and educate young people about global interdependence, and more specifically the interdependence between Europe and Africa, to help them better understand these complex mechanisms (cultural, economic and historical), and to encourage them to act as responsible citizens so that they can contribute to a fairer and more sustainable world.
Mòsso : Sika
Mòsso is a non-profit organisation founded in 2014 with the aim of researching and reflecting on contemporary art from Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and Latin America, and developing international artistic cooperation between Europe and these countries on a sustainable basis. The aim of the organisation is to give visibility to and support emerging artists living in Belgium, to promote current cultural innovations and to carry out artistic projects on current environmental and societal challenges.
The 'Sika' project, which means 'gold' in the Akan languages, brings together Pierre-Philippe Ayoh Kré Duchâtelet, graphic designer, co-founder of the Villa Hermosa studio and teacher at the ERG, as well as the non-profit organisation, to design a four-issue paper edition of a journal featuring photographs, texts by sociologists, anthropologists and philosophers, and contributions by artists dealing with the political, cultural and economic domination of Western countries over the countries of the Global South. Each issue will be produced by a different editorial team made up of 3 visual and sound artists, curators and writers living in Belgium and/or on the continent. Each publication will be accompanied by a public performance in Belgium, which will be broadcast live on Mòsso's social networks, and by podcasts featuring sound pieces and interviews with the artists taking part in the project.
It is a curatorial space aimed at 18-35 year olds, providing an opportunity to reflect on the relationships of North-South domination from a global, ethical and ecological perspective, offering contemporary visual and sound creations from the African diaspora, Afro-descendant artists and artists living on the African continent. The project also raises the question of more ecological and ethical practices. Sika is encouraging global citizenship by proposing a project that has the capacity to create artistic content despite the distance, closed borders and successive confinements that will continue to exist in 2021.
MDF The Label : Sisterhood
The organisation acts as a bridge between those involved in Afro-Caribbean dance movements in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Its objective: to facilitate access to the source in order to improve our cultural and technical knowledge and to better promote these dances and cultures in order to avoid the appropriation of these dances and the impoverishment of cultures. MDF The Studio promotes culture from an intercultural, intersectional and decolonial perspective, through courses, workshops, conferences, cultural trips, performances and training.
Since June 2020, MDF has been bringing Afro-descendant women together twice a month to practise Afro-Caribbean dances. Following this experience, the organisation wants to create a collective called "Sisterhood", which will bring together women who love Afro-Caribbean dance, with the aim of creating a show on the African heritage of dancehall, combining African dances and Caribbean dances from their different heritages. This process will give rise to the creation of a space where these women collectively question their experiences, share their knowledge and enrich it. It will be punctuated by the organisation of workshops led by renowned dancers from Africa and the Caribbean. The collective, the dancers and choreographers of the non-profit organisation will be working in creative residencies with percussion musicians and a composer.
Presenting this piece on well-known Belgian stages will highlight the place of Afrodescendant women in our society and, more broadly, the place of their cultural heritage through dance. It will also show the richness and complexity of these dances and music, the product of a global colonial history, and the impact of contemporary practices on them. MDF The Studio's aim is to combat the stereotypical images of Africa and the Caribbean held by the general public.
De Verhalenwerf Interculturele: LUISTER naar mijn STEM
De Verhalenwerf intercultural vzw is a voluntary organisation that builds bridges between people, communities and cultures using stories as a foundation. Its storytellers and their stories come from many different cultures and languages. They believe that stories are the world's heritage, the staple diet and the memory of humanity.
"LUISTER naar mijn STEM / ECOUTE ma VOIX" aims to give a voice to Afro-Belgian storytellers and visual artists to highlight the beneficial and socially enriching power of intercultural exchange, using concrete and well-chosen examples from history and contemporary practice. De Verhalenwerf Interculturele does this in a storytelling show for all ages and with global citizenship workshops for children and young people, the world citizens of tomorrow. These shows and workshops will be performed and accompanied by duos of a new and an old Belgian, who use words and images to critically examine Belgium's historical responsibility towards Central Africa and the indispensable process of decolonisation, using stories, testimonies, letters, poems, sayings, paintings, photographs, cartoons, short films and interactive exercises and commissions.
The main theme of "LUISTER naar mijn STEM / ECOUTE ma VOIX" is intercultural exchange, past, present and future, as a positive story and an enrichment for society. Mutual encounter, exchange, understanding and respect are the key words for working together as concretely as possible, by means of best practices and interactive missions, towards a new, normal and contemporary world citizenship. The project consists of a preparation and study section, the main section with the narrative performance and workshops for primary and secondary schools, and a final study day.
