Join us on Friday, June 19th, at an online film screening followed by a panel discussion of digital and cultural professionals (in English) as part of the “Lange Nacht der Ideen” (Long Night of Ideas). This series of events has been organized and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office for several years now. Each year it focuses on different topics of cultural exchange and relations. This year’s title is “Kulturen der Zukunft – Zukunft der Kulturen” (Cultures of the Future – Future of Cultures).

Due to the current pandemic situation, this year’s edition will be digital. Polis180 is participating with its event “Artistic Narratives of Africa: An online event with cultural professionals and digital innovators”.

The demand for more diversity in arts and culture has been growing for years, also with regard to film and media narratives. These are often one-sided and do not reflect the multitude of existing artistic and innovative perspectives. Within this context, we want to shed a light on the connection between art production and international cultural relations. The role of digital developments and innovations will be highlighted in particular. The aim is to initiate a lively dialogue with one another.

We will start our event with a screening of Bettina Haasen’s und Elke Sasse’s documentary “Digital Africa”, which was broadcasted on German – French TV ARTE in June 2018. It is a trip through a continent with fiber-optic internet access and a creative start-up scene. We want to set the stage for innovations and artistic narratives of Africa.

©Berlin Producers

We are very excited to welcome the following experts on the panel:

Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou

Togolese anthropologist and architect Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou is the creator of the collaborative platform L’Africaine d’architecture and founder of the WoeLab, a network for tech hubs in Togo. His idea is a smart city, that connects modern technology with tradition and uses innovation to tackle problems such as waste. His project W.Afate is the first African 3D printer and was built with computer waste. He envisions a collaborative society, where everyone is “equal in the face of technology”. (Quote: re:publica)

Darlyne Komukama

Darlyne Komukama is a Ugandan self-taught photographer, installation artist, DJ and producer. She works mostly collaboratively to investigate and edify the things she cares about; femininity, blackness and connectedness. Her feminist ideals are vital to her projects and she will be found working with other women to make some cool shit for even more women to enjoy. Her photographs are full of regal, statuesque black women, colour and a call back to the natural world. Her projects include The Salooni, a multi-media roving installation made together with 3 Ugandan women investigating and celebrating Black hair.  Have a look at what The Salooni represents here. Further information about Darlyne Komukama can be found on darlkomphotography.tumblr.com.

Girish Shambu

Girish Shambu teaches at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. For the last 15 years he has been a film blogger. He recently published his manifesto “For a New Cinephilia”, in which he claims: „75 years of film history did reflect a limited perspective only, namely that of a minority group: a perspective of ‘straight white men’.” With his “New Cinephilia” the US-American calls for the reflection and representation of different narratives in order „to multiply a diversity of voices and subjectivities, and a plethora of narratives about cinephilic life“. His website is: https://girishshambu.net/

We are looking forward to seeing you online and exchanging ideas together.

Meanwhile, take a look at the ongoing projects in our cultural policy section.

Any further questions? Please contact: bettina.boehm@polis180.org

*This event is organised by Polis180’s Cultural Policy Programme.