African Feminisms Gathering at Iwalewahaus: Experience Art and Feminist Futures
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African Feminisms in Bayreuth: Thinking Art, Memory, and Future Together
From October 22 to 24, 2026, the Iwalewahaus of the University of Bayreuth will become an international venue for artistic exchange, scholarly reflection, and feminist knowledge production. The African Feminisms Gathering: Shaping Feminist Futures brings together artists, scholars, curators, and activists to examine African feminisms from various historical, diasporic, and social perspectives.
The Kick-off: Lecture, Exhibition, and New Perspectives
On Thursday, October 22, the exhibition will open at 5:30 PM for individual viewing. The exhibition atmosphere combines contemporary art, archival materials, and diasporic stories. Historical works and current artistic positions enter new relationships and test familiar notions of collection, memory, and cultural authority.
The official evening will begin with a welcome from Prof. Natasha A. Kelly and Dr. Nadine Siegert. A highlight will be the Okwui Enwezor Distinguished Lecture by Kenyan artist Syowia Kyambi. In her multimedia lecture Worlding: Carrying the Sun on Our Backs, sound, image, memory, and narrative come together in an artistic reflection on sustainability, collaboration, and survival.
Beyond the Sweet and Obvious: African Feminisms Refracted
At the heart of the opening is the exhibition Beyond the Sweet and Obvious: African Feminisms Refracted, curated by Prof. Dr. Natasha A. Kelly. The starting point is the Nigerian artist Colette Omogbai's call for a new perspective on art. African feminisms serve as an art historical and societal lens through which the collection of the Iwalewahaus is reinterpreted.
The curation asks whose art becomes visible, how knowledge is passed on, and who is involved in interpreting history. Painting, installation, archive, and contemporary artistic practice converge in an exhibition that understands cultural education as an open process. The works offer an aesthetic experience between sensory spatial impact, memory, and political presence.
Three Days of Exchange and Cultural Education
The Gathering extends beyond the opening. Conversations, performances, panels, and workshops focus on institutional responsibility, feminist archives, diasporic memory, and forms of collective future-making. Artistic and scholarly perspectives intersect with activist practice, making the Iwalewahaus a vibrant site of collective knowledge production.
On Friday, among other topics, questions of access, authority, and accountability of museums, archives, and universities will be central. Presentations and performance lectures will explore sustainable development, motherhood, memory, and belonging. On Saturday, the Archival Futures Lab invites creative workshops, including zine-making, future designs for libraries, feminist archive practices, and collective listening as a form of living memory.
An Artistic Experience Between Past and Future
The African Feminisms Gathering combines art viewing with social reflection. Visitors experience an exhibition where materials, voices, images, and archives do not appear as completed history, but as transformable forms of remembering. The exhibition atmosphere creates space for concentration, conversation, and new perspectives on African art, diaspora, and feminist movements.
Those interested in contemporary art, African art history, decolonial curating, and cultural education will find a multifaceted artistic experience here. The opening at Iwalewahaus provides immediate access to artists, curators, and international voices reflecting on memory, visibility, and feminist futures.
Conclusion: Art as a Joint Design of a Possible Future
The African Feminisms Gathering: Shaping Feminist Futures promises an intense connection of exhibition, lecture, performance, discussion, and workshop. Art enthusiasts will experience how African feminisms open new access to collection, history, and social change. The opening on October 22, 2026, offers the ideal entry into this inspiring program – a visit to the Iwalewahaus enriches both the aesthetic experience and the critical view of art and knowledge.
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- Website: https://houseofafricanfeminisms.org/Shaping-Feminist-Futures-Gathering
