Ifa Galerie

Seeds For Future Memories

Voicing the two ends of migration

12 Jul - 18 Aug 2019

© 2018 Juan Pablo Macias
„Brother Maize and Brother Babacar“, video still
SEEDS FOR FUTURE MEMORIES
Voicing the two ends of migration
12 July - 18 August 2019

Berlin, 4 July 2019 – Two years ago, the artists’ residencies at Villa Romana, Florence and the
Thread in Sinthian, south-east Senegal, began a cooperative project on the migration route between Africa and Europe. The fundamental idea of the project was to examine the lack of common narratives at the two end points of migrational flux.

Last year, 13 artists from Benin, Cameroon, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Senegal travelled to and carried out research in Sinthian and Florence. What is the rationale behind this lack of communication and the asymmetrical relationship between the two continents? How can artists acquire, reflect on and interpret these narratives?

The Tambacounda region, in which Sinthian is located, has the highest rate of migration in West
Africa and is a crossing point on the route that passes into Mali and Libya. For many years, tens of thousands of people of Moroccan, Senegalese and Nigerian descent have lived in Tuscany. Italy’s African diaspora also includes the more than 300,000 migrants who have arrived in the country in recent years. Many of them had a different idea of what awaited them in Europe.

The works created during these reciprocal visits in 2018 are now being shown in a three-part exhibition at ifa Gallery Berlin, ACUD MACHT NEU and FREIRAUM IN DER BOX. They deal with the devastating effects of colonialism and capitalism, centuries of racist exclusion, and with traditions and knowledge that oppose ongoing unilateral assertions and promote friendship and mutual exchange. www.seedsforfuturememories.com

At ifa Gallery Berlin, works by Johanna Bramble, Aliou (Badou) Diack, Juan Pablo Macías, Fabrice Monteiro, Mario Pfeifer, Judith Raum and Lerato Shadi are on display.

Other exhibition venues:
FREIRAUM in der Box, Boxhagener Straße 96 (in courtyard), 10245 Berlin
11 July to 17 August 2019
Wednesday to Saturday 14.00 - 18.00
Opening: Wednesday 10 July 2019, 19.00
Aliou (Badou) Diack, Giovanni Hänninen & Alberto Amoretti, Mohamed Keita, Patrick Joel
Tatcheda Yonkeu, Justin Randolph Thompson

ACUD MACHT NEU, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin
13 July to 3 August 2019
Thursday to Saturday 14.00 - 19.00
Opening: Friday 12 July 2019, 18.00
Leone Contini, Fabrice Monteiro, Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu