Shores of Sahara-Sahel: Waves, Forms, Futures

The Sahara and Sahel might be understood as both an ancient space of connection, circulation, and trade—from its northern to its southern shores, its dunes and volcanic mountains to its lusher savannahs—and as a contemporary site of exchange between strikingly singular societies and communities on all sides of the desert, that aspect of the Sahara most often imaged and imagined. To that end, the autumn symposium of Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW, held in collaboration with the Culturescapes 2023 Sahara festival, will be devoted to the artistic and cultural productions, lines of political and aesthetic thought, and epistemologies of the Sahara, and the accompanying Sahel. Taking place on 11 and 12 October 2023, and featuring artists, thinkers, writers, performers, composers, and choreographers from Sahara-Sahel or their diasporas, the gathering will consider some of the ideas, images, performances, poetics, politics, fictions, and movements that emerge from this enormously important and kaleidoscopic space.  The symposium is part of Institute Art Gender Nature’s biannual master symposia series Gender and Equality in the Arts that considers artistic practice within its entanglements with issues of gender, coloniality, and ecology.  With contributions by Phoenix Atala, Kateryna Botanova, Binta Diaw, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (crazinisT artisT), Yarri Kamara, Mohamed Sleiman Labat, Benaouda Lebdai, Rania Mamoun, Yara Mekawei, Kettly Noël, and Temitayo Ogunbiyi, among others. Moderated by Chus Martínez and Quinn Latimer The symposium will close with the performance by Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] "The Dust in Bed".  The symposium is open to the public and will be held in English. Research: Marion Ritzmann Watch all the videos here.   More information