blaxTARLINES KUMASI

blaxTARLINES is honoured to be among this illustrious cohort of influential and global paradigm-shifters. Congratulations to all involved. Special recognition to @ibrahimmahama3 for the well deserved and unprecedented feat. blaxTARLINES: THE IMPOSSIBILITY THAT HAPPENS! ArtReview Power 100 (2025) The annual ranking of the most influential people in art. #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #knust #ibrahimmahama #Africa

blaxTARLINES is honoured to be sharing space with all the change makers listed in the 2024 ArtReview Power 100. Congrats to all who have been named and the unnamed forces that carry them! blaxTARLINES Profile: Art Review This group of teachers, artists and curators may be based at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (@knust.gh ), Kumasi, but their objectives bypass pedagogy. Fostering critical discussions within the art scene in Ghana, while building international connections, this amorphous collective acts as an exhibition platform and support network, modelling a form of headless institution. Beyond its Kumasi project space are exchange programmes with art schools in Germany, and residency swaps in Denmark and Uganda. Historical survey Ghana 1957: Art After Independence was co-curated by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (@iubizzle ) in Accra, while the group collaborated with Berlin’s SAVVY Contemporary (@savvycontemporary ) in shaping part of its Transitions project. Members often swap seamlessly between the roles of artist and curator, such as Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson (@tracynkthompson ), who co-curated a two-part exhibition at Gallery 1957’s (@gallery1957 ) London and Accra spaces, then took part in the Busan Biennale (@busanbiennale ), and Bernard Akoi-Jackson (@benjoonam ), who organised Elolo Bosoka’s (@elolobosoka ) show at Accra’s Museum of Science and Technology, and whose work is currently on display in the photography biennial Bamako Encounters (@rencontresdebamako2024 ). #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #knust #kwasioheneayeh #bernardakoijackson #tracynaakoshiethompson #elolobosoka #ibrahimmahama #bonaventuresohbejengndikung #KoyoKouoh #savvycontemporary

blaxTARLINES makes a sophomore appearance on the @artreview_magazine 2023 Power 100 list. Congratulations to Ibrahim Mahama, Koyo Kuouh, John Akomfrah, Lynette Boakye Yiadom, @bonaventurendikung , ruangrupa, Torkwase Dyson and all named. Read more at #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #power100 #artreviewpower100

"Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, and Lady Julia Osei Tutu honoured artists, namely Ibrahim Mahama, Yaw Owusu, Larry Otoo, Leon Radegonde, Julie Hudson, Osei Bonsu, Victor Butler, and Afia Prempeh at the 2026 Asantehene Art Awards held at Manhyia Palace on May 13, 2026. The second edition of the awards brought together hundreds of guests to celebrate excellence and innovation in contemporary art. Among the dignitaries present were the UNESCO Representative in Ghana Mr. Edmond Moukala; Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Hon. Dzifa Gomashie; KNUST Vice Chancellor Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson; Justice and Repair President Yvonne Darkwa Poku; and Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Tamas Feher. A satellite exhibition featuring diverse artworks was held alongside the main ceremony." Congratulations to all awardees! Photo and text courtesy of @opemsuo104.7 #opemsuoradio #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi

For Biennale Arte 2026 by Koyo Kouoh, the Underground Railroad—a historic network that engineered the emancipation of enslaved people, is the muse of blaxTARLINES. By analogy, blaxTARLINES serves as a contemporary system of “underground railroads,” “stations,” “havens”, “conductors,” “fugitives” and “escorts.” The blaxTARLINES UNDERGROUND RAILROAD cartography is composed of several layers: Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson's food map; allegorised Underground Railroad routes; constellation of blaxTARLINES solidarity network across five continents; Goddy Leye's sound installation; kąrî'kạcha seid'ou's poem 'Boundaries, Sores, Scars' (1998); and quadruple screens dubbed EXHIBITING EXHIBITIONS: AFTERLIVES OF LANDMARK blaxTARLINES EXHIBITIONS (video archives, sonic archives, exhibition brochures, texts, etc.) Cartography: 3D topography generated from macro-image of pounded fufu and crystalline structures from Jollof and Wheat with 2D tracing of microstructure contours by Thompson @tracynkthompson . Conceived by seid’ou and Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (IUB) @iubizzle . Co-designed by Thompson, Francis Essel Etetere @iametetere , and Gideon Hanyame @hanyame22 . Photo courtesy of blaxTARLINES KUMASI. Produced with the support of George Buma Ampratwum, Bernard Akoi-Jackson, and Ibrahim Mahama. Poem: kąrî'kạchä seid’ou, Boundaries, Sores, Scars, durational poem, 1998, Fumbisi, 2026, Venice Translation credits: Standard Italian Translation: Gioia Guerzoni Appreciation: Rebecca deMarchi @rebecca_dema , Gloria Pagliani & Manuel Bauer @manuel.bbaauueerr Sound installation: Goddy Leye (1965-2011), untitled, 2009, wood, glass, millet, speaker cone, amplifier, mp3 file, USB flash drive. Produced with the support of Teiger Foundation @teigerfoundation , in partnership with American Friends of Zeitz MOCAA, APALAZZOGALLERY @apalazzogallery , Mercedes Vilardell, Archive Books @archivebkj , Compound House Gallery @compoundhousegallery , VODO Arts Society @vodoarts , UNDER GROUND Kampala @underground8808 , SCCA Tamale @sccatamale , Red Clay @redclay_studio , and Lara Facco P&C @larafacco_press . #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKeys #followthedrinkinggo

At the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the late curator Koyo Kouoh placed the “SCHOOLS” at the centre of the main exhibition spaces. Although not all of them grant formal degrees, “schools” is the term that best brings them together: spaces of thought, creation, learning, and transition for many artists who are now shaping the international art discourse. Their vital force lies in reinventing and questioning dominant models of knowledge and artistic production. Located across different parts of the world, the exhibition presents several “schools” from Africa, including blaxTARLINES KUMASI @blaxtarlines from Ghana, G.A.S. Foundation @gasfoundation from Nigeria, Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute @ncai254 from Kenya, and RAW Material Company @raw.gram2011 , founded by Koyo Kouoh in Senegal. All are united by the idea of encounter, refuge, and critical dialogue. To further explore the role of these “schools” within the Biennale and the radical practices they embody, readers can refer to In Minor Keys – The Venice Biennale Curated by Koyo Kouoh: From the Arsenale to the Giardini and Interview with Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh: blaxTARLINES KUMASI and Its Radical Artistic Practice published on Equator Echoes 📍 61st International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale | May 9–Nov 22, 2026 📸 Photo courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia 👉 Full articles in link in bio

“After the revolution, who is going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?” —Mierle Laderman Ukeles, 1969 “Who shall be Artists and who shall be Servants in the world to come? Or shall we all be artists and all serve?” —W. E. B. Du Bois, 1920 You may call us an open-source art coalition or an art-labour movement. Both designations fit the bill. But we are also a pedagogical experiment, a support hub, a sharing economy, and an underground emancipation network—a growing alliance of Harriet Tubmans, Peg Leg Joes, and other “railroad conductors" and escorts. We are hosted by Ghana’s foremost art college at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, but our “railroad stations” are dispersed across five continents. Our contribution to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia explores “fugitivity,” “Non-Reciprocal Gifting,” strangeness, and radical pedagogy as entry points into Koyo Kouoh’s In Minor Keys. We deploy Fractal Curating by zooming-in and zooming-out nested spaces and time signatures. We also explore Duplex Exhibition Models—bi-directional exchange of live projects between Venice and its outside. Within these frameworks, we install our open-source recipes blaxxRADIO and blaxxMEDIA as portals staging interviews, pre-recorded sonic content referring back to our podcast channel, music playlists, and livestream setups where Venice, Kumasi, Kampala and other “railroad stations,” respectively double as viewing and streaming centres. Our haptic blaxxLIBRARY, sub-titled On Ghosts, Resurrections, and Debris from by-passed Futures anchors a space of multi-sensory engagement staging objects, sound, video installations, exhibited exhibitions, interactive archival displays, murals, books, weaver-loom performance installations, and more. Indeed, the subjunctive is our future, our past, our present, our joy! • 'SLOW DOWN: C̶A̶T̶T̶L̶E̶ BATTLE AHEAD' blaxTARLINES at Biennale Arte 2026 by Koyo Kouoh Produced with the support of Teiger Foundation, in partnership with American Friends of Zeitz MOCAA, APALAZZOGALLERY, Mercedes Vilardell, Archive Books, Compound House Gallery, VODO Arts Society, UNDER GROUND Kampala

blaxTARLINES encounters in Venice... #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKeys #apalazzogallery

Concept sketches for SLOW DOWN: C̶A̶T̶T̶L̶E̶ BATTLE AHEAD, 2026 blaxTARLINES @ Biennale Arte 2026 by Koyo Kouoh blaxTARLINES CURATORIAL TEAM: Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh @iubizzle , George Buma Ampratwum @georgebuma , Kwaku Boafo Kissiedu (Castro) @kwakukissiedu , Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson @tracynkthompson , Bernard Akoi-Jackson @benjoonam , Ibrahim Mahama @ibrahimmahama3 , kąrî’kạchä seid'ou. Curatorial Advisory: Edwin Kwesi Bodjawah @papaedwino , Rosemary Esinam Damalie @esinam_damalie , Dorothy Amenuke @dotamenuke , Michael Adashie, Kwame Opoku Bonsu, Eyram Donkor, Kwabena Afriyie Poku, Adjo Daiki Apodey Kisser @mooncrittersprogramme_ , Yaw Mantey Jectey-Nyarko, Felix Annor-Anim, Emmanuel Antwi. Sketches by Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson Produced with the support of Teiger Foundation @teigerfoundation , in partnership with American Friends of Zeitz MOCAA, APALAZZOGALLERY @apalazzogallery , Mercedes Vilardell, Archive Books @archivebkj , Compound House Gallery @compoundhousegallery , VODO Arts Society @vodoarts , UNDER GROUND Kampala @underground8808 , SCCA Tamale @sccatamale , Red Clay @redclay_studio , and Lara Facco P&C @larafacco_press . #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKeys

The program will be developed as an open and dynamic process, progressively shaped through encounters and relationships formed over the course of the Biennale and beyond. It will unfold through a series of conversations with Italian and international guests, articulated across different fields of practice and research in order to foster a broad and cross-cutting dialogue on the central themes of the project. The first week of programming places a significant focus on the visual and performing arts, featuring the participation of international artists. The voices, experiences, and reflections of Ei Arakawa-Nash, Sammy Baloji, Éric Baudelaire, blaxTARLINES KUMASI, Eglė Budvytytė, Bonnie Devine, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Guadalupe Maravilla, Nonument Group, Gala Porras-Kim, Tabita Rezaire, Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser, Kemang Wa Lehulere—to name but a few—will enrich the platform with narratives on contemporary artistic practices, fostering critical exchange on the educational urgencies of our time. Visit the link below for more: /announcements/6786943/radio-gamec-in-venice-pedagogy-of-hope #blaxtarlines #larafaccopress #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKeys #RadioGamec

blaxTARLINES is a Ghana-based open-source artistic coalition and pedagogical experiment operating as a global horizontal network to hack and redistribute cultural resources. The collective’s works are featured in the "Schools" section of "In Minor Keys", curated by Koyo Kouoh at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Through experimental infrastructure and educational programs, the movement addresses crises in art distribution systems by fostering a sharing economy. Listen to the episodes of Radio GAMeC - Pedagogy of Hope on Spotify🎙️ Conversation held in English, live on streaming at 3.30 pm Hosted by Ilaria Gianni __ #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKeys #radiogamec #gamec #gamecbergamo @labiennale @_lorenzogiusti @lara_facco @blaxtarlines

"A deliberate twist to the familiar Ghanaian Sankͻfa [“go back for it”] legend could go thus; “If one has good grasp of the emergent future then it matters less which direction she, he or it faces”. It seems to me that the different and apparently contradictory directions taken by the artists of this exhibition affirm the spirit of this deliberate misreading. It has been customary to read the Sankͻfa rebus in historicist-contextualist terms as a mythical bird which returns to a forgotten past in order to reclaim in a nostalgic way what it might have left behind. In my new reading however, Sankͻfa attempts to grasp what it might have forgotten from futures that are to come. In this new spirit, the varied visions of the exhibiting artists might be best interpreted as anagrams of emancipated futures. The degrees of freedom of these anagrams expand with the multiplicity of “alphabets” at the disposal of the engaged anagrammatist. However, like the new Sankͻfa bird, these artists have no privileged route or direction from which, or towards which to face, to return to, to look at, to forget, to remember, to erase or to have a good grasp of the coming futures. The Silence between the Lines exhibition introduces the unsettled visions of these anagrammatists of l’avenir or, with due deference to Pierre Bayard, plagiarists of emancipated futures which “lie dormant in the present as its hidden potential.” Like Deleuze says of Proust, the visions of these artists and their kin “occupy a place in time which is incommensurable with the one that they [occupy] in space”. To my mind, this is the spirit of the so-called “New Contemporary” emerging from the Kumasi College of Art. Silence is not absence!" kąrî'kạchä seid’ou (Culled from the curatorial statement of blaxTARLINES KUMASI's exhibition dubbed 'Silence Between the Lines: Anagrams of Emancipated Futures', 2015) Slide 1 designed by @hanyame22 #blaxtarlines #blaxtarlineskumasi #BiennaleArte2026 #InMinorKey #apalazzogallery