Vodo Arts Society

SLOW DOWN: C̶A̶T̶T̶L̶E̶ BATTLE AHEAD, 2026  blaxTARLINES KUMASI at Biennale Arte 2026 by Koyo Kouoh Multimedia installation: wooden shelves, wooden rack, wooden tables, wooden stools, headphones, flatscreen monitors, MP3 devices, books, sound installation, variable dimensions, mural, fabric. Portals: blaxxRADIO  | blaxxLIBRARY  | blaxxMEDIA  | blaxTARLINES UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATIONS (Cartography) 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys Photos by:  blaxTARLINES KUMASI, _AVZ: Andrea Avezzù, _JS: Jacopo Salvi, _MZO: Marco Zorzanello, _LZB: Luca Zambelli Bais Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia 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 #apalazzogallery

OKUZINGIRAMU Pavilion @maltabiennale.art Okuzingiramu is the Luganda word for entanglement a condition of being bound within relationships that cannot be undone without loss. The pavilion reflects on lives shaped through inherited networks of people, materials, histories, and ecologies, under the weight of unfinished colonial legacies and environmental change. Using materials that carry memory rather than monumentality, the works speak through gesture, craft, and collective histories. Banana fiber, palm leaves, and raffia become traces of touch, labor, play, and survival. These are not documents of a finished past, but artifacts of an ongoing world reminding us that history remains present, and that separation has always been an illusion. Okuzingiramu invites us to remain with complexity, to practice awareness, and to inhabit connection with humility and remembrance. Curated by : WAMALA NYANZI Artists : Yiga Joshua Mulungi Namata Maria Birungi #Okuzingiramu #MaltaBiennale #ContemporaryArt #UgandanArt AfricanArt ArtInstallation MemoryAndMaterial Entanglement Biennale #heritagemalta

It takes a village. Many thanks for the turn up, it's not over as we are still on for the next month. Can't wait to see you there! Step into a world where art reflects the complexities of choice, identity, and existence. ZIKUSANZE IF YOU DO, ZIKUSANZE IF YOU DON'T brings together thought-provoking works from two different artists, each piece inviting you to confront the tensions between expectation and truth, tradition and change, silence and expression. Come through from Monday to Sunday, 12 pm - 8 pm at @metroplexshoppingcentre @the.wamala.art @_kikomeko @bantuvibesofficial @blaxtarlines @droopcanvas @metroplexshoppingcentre All Photos: Copyright the Artist. Courtesy of the Artist and Vodo Arts Society. Photo: 📷 @yacovos For inquiries, DM or send an email to [email protected] #Zikusanze #ZikusanzeArtExhibition #VodoArts

blaxTARLINES deploys “fractal curating”, a method that zooms in and out across nested spaces and time signatures. This is extended through Duplex Exhibition Models, enabling bi-directional exchange of live projects between Venice and external sites. Within these tonal registers, blaxxRADIO, and blaxxMEDIA function as open-source portals staging interviews, pre-recorded sonic content (linked to our podcast channel), music playlists, and livestream infrastructures connecting Venice, Kumasi, Kampala, and other “railroad stations” as simultaneous viewing, streaming, and listening centres. blaxxLIBRARY, sub-titled On Ghosts, Resurrections, and Debris from by-passed Futures, anchors a multi-sensory haptic space. It features objects, sound, books, ephemera, braille texts, murals, weaver-loom performance, installations, video and sonic archives, digitized exhibition brochures, magazines, documents, theses, and more. This tactile dimension is further emphasized through a homage to Lionel Idan, designer of the Boku loom (a modern adaptation of the kente loom incorporating a warp roller), and the Affortey [Invaloom], designed for wheelchair users or persons with paraplegia. . . Visit our blaxxMEDIA portal: / Visit our blaxxRADIO podcast channel: / . . . . 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

Vodo Arts Society hosted an unforgettable morning with Ghanaian Artist Ama Adole Newman @amoroso_iii who led an interactive workshop examining the properties and perceptions of time and space within the human body—through the lens of fluorescence. Drawing on samples housed in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers, the workshop featured everyday materials with fluorescent properties, including: Energy drinks,Tonic water (containing quinine),Detergents (optical brighteners),Turmeric (curcumin),Carbonated beverage Uganda Waragi By observing fluorescence as a visible indicator of molecular interactions, participants explored how bodily perception of temporality and spatiality can be rendered legible through material phenomena. She has developed a practice that prioritises experimentation and employs multidisciplinary knowledge. #blaxtarlines #vodoarts

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

In the midst of the vision and the result. For @dwb_africa Produced @vodoarts Assisted @dennis_kasagga_ @ebya_ssebakijje Shot @ccityboi001 #mural #uganda #art #painting #creativity

“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

Join us for a workshop & art talk with @amoroso_iii ✨ 📅 April 25th (Saturday) 📍 ICT Innovation Hub, Nakawa - Kampala 🕙 10am | Workshop 🕑 2pm | Art Talk Free admission. Come through, experiment, and explore. See you there.

Vodo Arts Society and lab is honored to announce the participation of artists Namata Maria Tereza and Joshua Mulungi Yiga in the second edition of the Malta Biennale, titled CLEAN / CLEAR / CUT. The Biennale will take place across various historical sites in Malta and Gozo from 11 March to 29 May 2026. The Thematic Pavilion, titled OKUZINGIRAMU, will be on view at Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum. Curated by Wamala Nyanzi, the pavilion presents a powerful reflection on entanglement. "Okuzingiramu" is the Luganda word for entanglement: being caught in or involved in a complex situation that is difficult to separate from. Joshua Mulungi Yiga works with banana-fiber dolls, drawing on Ugandan childhood traditions in which children shaped fiber into figures and imagined worlds together. His practice carries this play into the present, treating banana fiber as a record of shared gestures and collective presence. Namata Maria Tereza works with palm leaves (nsansa) and raffia (obuso), using weaving and knotting techniques rooted in Buganda’s domestic craft traditions. By reshaping these materials into suspended, non-functional forms, she repositions them from private utility objects, exposing a support system and revealing how attentiveness and rest are distributed, strained, and shared. The Malta Biennale is organised by Heritage Malta, in partnership with Arts Council Malta and in collaboration with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts, and Local Government, and with VisitMalta. Malta Biennale 2026 Pavilion Title: OKUZINGIRAMU Curator: Wamala Nyanzi Artists: Namata Maria Tereza and Joshua Mulungi Yiga Location: Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum, Valletta Dates: 11 March – 29 May 2026