Anyie Mienye – We are Clay Workshop by Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi
We are Clay Workshop /Anyie Mienye/ explores performance as a ritual and a political tool for activism, protest and radical solidarity. The title was borrowed from Ewe (Ghana/Togo) burial ceremonies returning the deceased body to the earth as its origin and an ancestral destination. It is synonymous to many other indigenous traditions and (colonial religions including Islam and Chritianity) which believe that humans are created from the Earth.
In this workshop Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi also known as crazinisT artisT highlights the significance of clay in contemporary performance while unveiling the physical, mental and spiritual roles of clay in sHits rituals, performances and artivism. Va-Bene uses sHits art to challenge and break colonial structures while advocating for racial, gender and sexual liberation.
There will be room to discuss and practice performance in public spaces as a tool of protest and resistance.
SIGN UP
To participate please sign up by sending an email to WORM Pirate Bay programmer James Parnel @ james@worm.org
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR: Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi
Pronoun: ‘sHit’ if not ‘she’.
Born in 1981 in Ho, Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] works internationally but lives in Kumasi, Ghana. sHit is a multidisciplinary ‘artivist’, curator, founder and artistic director of perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) which aims at promoting exchanges between international and local artists, activists, researchers, curators and thinkers. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigmas and their consequences for marginalized groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, sHit employs sHits own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video and installations. sHit ‘life-and-live-art’ confronts issues such as: disenfranchisement, social justice, violence, objectification, internalised oppression, anti-blackness, ‘systemic indoctrination’, and more.