Theme 1: Walk with me

Equatoguinean filmmaker Juan Pablo Ebang Esono studied at the Nucine Academy of Valencia earning a degree in film direction. In 2001, Esono directed the short film La Familia. It received "Le grand Prix Africain du Cinema et de la Television" at the Golden Crown Awards in Abidjan. Esono directed his second short film, No Esta Desnuda in 2007. It won the best short feature award of the 3rd International Film Festival for Integration in Valencia. Three years later Esono directed Teresa, the first medium-length film to be produced in Equatorial Guinea. Based on true events and produced by the National Library of Equatorial Guinea, the plot traces the twists and turns of the lives of three teenage friends. Teresa was named the best film from Equatorial Guinea by the German film ratings agency Moviepilot. After producing Teresa, Esono led film classes in several cities and provinces in his country on behalf of The National Library of Equatorial Guinea. In 2016, Esono directed the 21-minute film Milu, based on a script written by Salvador Maquina.  In September 2020, he was named General Director of Production, Programming, and Compilation of the Audiovisual Historical Archives of Equatorial Guinea.

Lola Keyezua is an Angolan-Dutch photographer and performance artist. She graduated in Interactive Media and Design from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in 2014, and has since lived and worked both in Europe and her native Angola moving most recently to the Philippines. Passionate about engaging as an artist in the development processes in economics, culture and education, she began her creative career defending the rights of people from underprivileged and discriminated social groups. For her art projects, she bravely enters some of the most precarious locations and situations. “What makes me uncomfortable in our society is what helps me create an artwork,” she said in an interview. The result is a body of work that is always aesthetically accomplished, often provocative, and never timid. 

Cedric Mizero’s path towards an artistic career began when he was growing up in a small village in western Rwanda. He watched his mother knit clothes, combining her passion as well as a means of upgrading the wardrobe of her eight children, which inspired him to invent new kinds of outfits as a game. In his teens, Mizero began tailoring, and in 2012 he moved to Rwanda’s capital Kigali to pursue fashion design professionally. He soon made a mark in Rwanda’s creative circles and internationally with inventively constructed garments in which he often intermixes traditional artisanal techniques, new materials and repurposed objects.  

Elisia Nghidishange is a printmaker, sculptor and mixed media artist. Born in northern Namibia, she graduated from the College of the Arts in Windhoek in 2016, and completed her first artist residency in Rapperswil, Switzerland in 2019. In 2017 she held her first solo exhibition The Cost of Wealth at the Goethe-Institut, Windhoek and was part of StArt Art Gallery’s Being Here. She has since exhibited in a number of other group and solo shows, and her work is held in private and public collections including the National Art Gallery of Namibia, Arts Association Heritage Trust, Namibia and Iwalewahaus, Germany. In 2021, Nghidishange was awarded 2nd Prize for Sculpture at the 2020 Bank Windhoek Triennial. 

Inspired by her heritage, Nghidishange uses familiar local materials such as cow horn and beads made from ostrich eggshells to make sculptural works that explore the place of tradition and gender norms in a contemporary and cosmopolitan society, and express resistance to the ways in which women are oppressed and marginalized.

Ngadi is a Sierra Leonean visual artist based between London, UK and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. She works in illustration, photography, design and mixed media. 

In her illustrations, Ngadi is motivated by the representation of minorities, highlighting cultural identity, racial discrimination, and feminism. She likes to deconstruct mainstream society's preconceived views of what defines normalcy, beauty and correctness. Her illustrations have appeared in The Atlantic, Time Out London, Eastpak, The Guardian, as well as Penguin’s Riverhead Books and Faber’s Children. 

Ngadi’s photography focuses on documenting cultures, subcultures and intimacy. Her images boldly reveal how people self-identify and make choices to develop their public presentation. Her recent artistic investigations explore the myriad of African representations, and what is means to be Africa.  Her photographs have been published in CNN, British Journal of Photography, Vogue Italia, Atmos Magazine, and ID Magazine.

Yasser Ahamed Said (b. 1988) and Abi Amri Said Bacar (b. 1996), better known in the urban art scene of Moroni as Tcharo and Makinz are Comoran painters, designers and graffiti artists who have been working together since 2017. Having first encountered street art as fans of Hakim Idriss (b. 1984), artist alias Socrome, an influential artist responsible for the rapid spread of outdoor murals in Comoros, Tcharo and Makinz learned many of their skills from him. The three young men foined forces and have collaborated on countless street art projects since. They first connected thanks to social media at the Swana Studio, the major Comorian multidisciplinary creative lab engaged in product design and art interventions in public spaces and social events. Today, Socrome is Swana’s creative director, Tcharo, the graffiti designer and Makinz is draftsman and illustrator. 

Tcharo, Makinz and Socrome leave their marks on walls around the city of Moroni, occasionally venturing into the countryside. Some of their pieces are prominently displayed, as in the case of the murals in the basketball court in Moroni’s district of Magoudjou or at the Ajao stadium on Corniche Road in the Ambassador zone, while others grace the graffiti spots frequented by the youth.

Clipse Teean is a graffiti artist, writer, painter, and designer. Her artistic journey began in 2000, and over the last two decades she has become an active voice for females in the street art community. Clipse is a member The Label Kolotsaina Mainty in Madagascar, as well as the International Business Music of Chambers in Amsterdam, and Rusted Mic Renegades in Spain.  

Having mastered a multitude of techniques ranging from spray-painting, stenciling, and airbrush, to sculpting and welding, Clipse’s style is bold and powerful. She works on a large scale, combining saturated colors, with thick linework. As an eclectic artist, she is constantly experimenting with new techniques, though she usually begins her mural designs by designing them on a smaller scale on paper.

Agness Yombwe is an established painter, textile artist, sculptor, and community organizer from Zambia. Her work focuses on presenting often times taboo subjects within the African context, such as gender-based violence, in ways that promote productive dialogue and give supporting resources to those afflicted. With the outbreak of COVID-19, Agness began to create a series of works which aimed to sensitize the public to the unfolding circumstances, and public health recommendations.  

Inspired to also find new ways to support herself while lifting up others in light of the pandemic, Agness embarked on the creation of a new artistic and educational space called Wayi Wayi Creative Village. In recent months ago, Agness founded and begun breaking ground on this new artist and youth space in the Livingstone District in Zambia. The construction process has employed large portions of the local communities and the final result will be a space for youth education at the local level and artistic residencies.

Juliette is a nature-focused painter. On her work she shares, “My home is on one of the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles archipelago. We are situated in the Indian Ocean, and many know us as one of the best holiday destinations. It is true, we are one of the best. My islands are far from the cyclonic zone. We have been blessed with plenty of clean air, pure water, and our nature is still intact. Well, that’s what the geography teachers told us 25 years ago when I was in primary school. They were right but that is slowly but surely changing…I’m not a scientist, I’m not even a diver. I’m only an artist expressing my feelings about our beautiful Earth, my islands, and how they are being affected by climate change. As a visual storyteller, I like to play with ideas and concepts that explore nature and science, and many of my artworks are based around the theme the ocean. By carefully choosing the visual elements for my collages – the color tones, the fishes, and the coral objects – I portray a future that we cannot see and a past that has been here and helped shape the visual elements of our daily life.”