From the Void came Gifts of the Cosmos - Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson

35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphics Arts,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

15 September, 2023 — 14 January, 2024

Group Exhibition

From the Void came Gifts of the Cosmos

Joining artistic director of this year’s Biennale Ibrahim Mahama, curators Exit Frame Collective, Alicia Knock, Selom Koffi Kudjie, Inga Lāce, Beya Othmani and Patrick Nii Okanta have been invited to respond to the Biennale’s theme, guided by the chosen title. Alongside the participating artists, this complex council of curatorial entities synchronously imagines the Biennale as a void and a site of potential, and as an ecosystem of friendships and solidarities, unearthed histories of resistance, liberation and transnational relations beyond the centre-periphery framework that holds the possibility of transforming the void into gifts of the cosmos. The void, in this context, suffices as an egalitarian framework out of which multiplicities emerge, while also operating as a site of artistic indeterminacy in the spirit of inclusion.

The curatorial direction is inspired by Mahama’s long-term interest in the promise of the affirmative and emancipatory politics of Ghana’s first president, Pan-African theorist Kwame Nkrumah. It was his post-independence vision that inspired the creation of the intellectual, cultural, scientific and economic infrastructure that defined Ghana’s first republic between 1960 and 1966. This vision was also expressed in the form of Non-Aligned collaborations culminating in the co-formation of the Non-Aligned Movement. The work of architects, designers, structural engineers and urban planners from the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland and the German Democratic Republic, among others, working on institutional buildings in Ghana was typical of the Socialist Internationalist cooperative models during this post-war period.

Exhibiting artists:
Anita Afonu, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Yasmina, Benabderrahmane, Assadour Bezdikian, Max, Cegielski and Janek Simon, Virginia Chihota, Galle, Winston Kofi Dawson, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Nabil, Djedouani, (DNLM) Danilo Milovanović, Jihan El, Tahri, El Warcha in dialogue with PLAC – Participatory, Ljubljana Autonomus Zone, Beti Frim and Ines Sekač, Helga Griffiths, Christian Guerematchi, Eric Gyamfi, Sonia Kacem, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, and more.

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