After one year lettera27 returns to Basel on invitation by Art Basel to talk about AtWork format at the Crowdfunding Booth on June 16th and 17th.
On June 16th at 2:PM lettera27 will be at the Crowdfunding Booth of the European edition of Art Basel to present AtWork: our educational itinerant format that aims to inspire a new generation of thinkers on the African continent and beyond.
The conversation between the team of Art Basel and Adama Sanneh and Elena Korzhenevich from lettera27 will touch upon the AtWork’s journey from its birth to today. There will also be two special guests that will take part in the conversation: the Egyptian artist Youssef Limoud, who assisted AtWork in Cairo and who just won the Grand Prix Dak’Art Du Chef De L’Etat 2016, and the Italian artist Giorgio Vigna who is supporting the #AddisAtWork campaign with a generous donation of his artwork as one of the rewards.
For over a month lettera27 has been running the crowdfunding campaign to bring the next chapter of AtWork to life in Addis Ababa in December, in partnership with Addis Foto Fest and Aida Muluneh.
The campaign that will last until June 25th and which you can still contribute to by clicking here, has been launched on invitation from Art Basel that has selected our project (Art)At Work to be featured on the Kickstarter page curated by them.
During the conversation in Basel we will also exhibit a selection of notebooks created during the last four years of AtWork in Dakar, Abidjan, Kampala, Cairo and Modena. We are very happy to be able to give visibility to the works of our students in such a prestigious context.
The recognition and support of Art Basel is a result of a relationship that started a year ago and was an important moment of AtWork’s journey and the development of its interactive community. During the previous Crowdfunding Booth edition of Art Basel in 2015 we have presented AtWork together with Simon Njami. In only one year our educational format has encountered and gathered many new stories, art pieces and travel companions.
The conversation on June 16th will be the occasion to talk about these recent adventures and to plan new activities and perspectives.
If you are in Basel come to visit us, we will be #AtWork for Addis Ababa!
Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
