Beyond Visibility – A Method of Inquiry | Afternoon

1:15 pm – Foyer Activity Here Project Book Toast/Presentation

Sharing/previewing the global launch of The Here Project: Pride and Belonging in African Art (Smithsonian Books publisher; Penguin Random House global distributors), the largest survey of out artists from the continent to date.

2 pm – North Africa at the Center: Rethinking Cultural Geographies

What does it mean to approach North Africa as a center rather than a margin? This panel examines artistic practices shaped by multiple cultural and geographic affiliations, highlighting locally driven conversations that engage global contexts without collapsing their complexity.
Mahmoud Khaled, Artist (Egypt)
Amina Diab, Curator (Tunisia) Adel al-Mandil, Collector, Collection Kinda (Saudi Arabia)
Moderated by: Meryem Sebti, Editor in Chief, Diptyk (Morocco)

3:30 pm – Foyer Activity – Pan-African Cultural Legacies – Activating the Archive

Echoing Pan-African Cultural Legacies: Activating the Commons at The Recovery Plan, this interactive activation unfolds as a living counter-archive within the Forum. Drawing on the latest issue of Africa e Mediterraneo (curated by BHMF), it traces Pan- African convenings across time, foregrounding informal networks and alternative knowledge systems, while inviting participants to engage through reading, interpretation, and collective exchange.

4:15 pm – Traditions Today: Performing and Processing Toward a Holistic History

Evoking In Minor Keys’s considerations of “procession,” what does it mean to make and innovate so-called “traditional” art practices, like West African urban masquerades, in a contemporary environment? How do performance artists allow us to empathize and embody experiences of epistemic repair? Considered together, masquerade and performance art practices offer us paths for seeing how “classical” and “contemporary” art are not separate realms but can be considered part of a continuously evolving field.
Hervé Youmbi, New African Masquerades artist/curator (Cameroon) *
Amanda Maples, Lisa Homann, and Jordan Fenton (New African Masquerades curators) (USA)
David Sanou and Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (New African Masquerades artists) * (Burkina Faso and Nigeria)
Wura-Natasha Ogunji, artist (US-Nigeria; 1922 Revisited: Live Arts Program Participant)
Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, artist (Nigeria-US; 1922 Revisited: Live Arts Program Participant)
Bernard Akoi-Jackson, artist, writer (Ghana; 1922 Revisited: Live Arts Program Participant)
Moderated by: Khanyisile Mbongwa (Curator of Art in the Public Realm at Amos Rex – curatorial theorist, sociologist, and Sangoma (ancestral-indigenous healer), South Africa)

5:45 pm – Foyer Activity – Jelili Atiku: Eyes No Dey Forget Wetin Heart See (Enact 1) (Performance)

Atiku’s Eyes No Dey Forget Wetin Heart See launches 1922 Revisited, a live arts program presented by Third Space Art Foundation during the opening week of the Venice Biennale. It features a mystical figure embodying the earth’s energy, embarking on a ‘Luminous Pilgrimage,’ a deliberate, trance-like journey that weaves through urban landscapes, integrating Orisha rituals with psychogeography and dérive. This immersive experience invites the audience to embody their true selves, confront societal expectations, and tap into the magic within and around them. Through this ritualistic dérive, participants are encouraged to surrender to the city’s rhythms, sensing the emotional resonance of spaces, and allowing the environment to shape their inner landscapes. The performance promotes self-discovery, transformation, and profound connection, addressing cultural identity fragmentation, reclamation, and restitution.