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Anguezomo Nathalie Mba Bikoro
(Gabon | 1985) "Risk is essential in the concept & practice of democracy because it defines the moment when one chooses to make images or chooses to live them" Bikoro is a conceptual artist from the region of Woleu-Ntem in North Gabon and is presently based in Berlin. A 10 year long battle with Leukaemia Cancer during their youth transposed her into different environments and languages in the Netherlands, France, UK, Brazil and Germany inevitably challenging her political positions, citizenship and feeding into her transdisciplinary practice as a visual activist, writer and teacher. The artist merges archeology, sonic radio, writing, textiles, sculpture, live art performances, film & archives for immersive installations. The work analyses processes of power & science fictions in historical archives critically engaging in migrational struggles and colonial memory. The artist creates environments for alternative narratives and future speculations of colonial resistance movements led by African women of the German, British and French diaspora and indigenous communities. Sedimented in narratives of testimonial Black queer experiences of sonic nature archives, revolt, queering ecologies and postcolonial feminist experiences towards new monuments which reacts to the different tones of societies shared between delusions & ritual. The work offers complex non-binary readings pushing new investigations about the architectures of racisms in cities, the archeologies of urban spaces & economies of traditional systems by exposing the limitations of technologies as functional memory records. |
Bikoro uses live art practices and digital photography story-telling to create living and performative archives contesting the nature of our cultures, histories and identity. Their practice works on the functions of performing archives contesting the purpose of our cultures, histories and identity through decolonial cannibal aesthetics. Their research is a time-machine reacting to sense-memory and political landscapes to create Human Monuments about spaces and peoples across all nations to re-invent memorial post colonial gestures towards freedom. These narratives are based on true stories and meander with visual fictions. Their practices often engages communities interactively by bridging societal constructs through educational theory and practice workshops in Decolonial Histories through Performance using sonorous archives, notably form colonial POW's between 1915-1942.
Mba Bikoro is an Associate Lecturer in Political Visual Cultures, Philosophy & Fine Arts, Director of the programmes "Decolonial Performance Tours", "Workshops On Safe Spaces; Racial Structural Discrimination and Migrant & QBiPOC Mental Health Care" and is Artistic Director of the collective Nyabinghi_Lab with projects „Decolonise The Green; Nature, Nudism and Colonial Continuities“ and „Free State Of Barackia: 150 years of Decolonial Urbanisms, Solidarity & NeuBerlin Utopias“ at ZKU and HAU Berlin. She was curatorial director of performance programmes at SAVVY Contemporary (2016-2019) and is now Advisory Board of the Theatre am Parkaue Berlin and moderator at the annual Berlinale Film Festival. She is the Fellow recipient of the Institute For Endomic Research’s „Somatic Charting“ project (2021).
Their most recent significant contributions have been shown in Havana Biennale (2019); Dak'art Biennale Senegal (2012 & 2018); Smithsonian Museum of African Art Washington DC (2013); Biennale De Bogota (2013); Tiwani Contemporary London (2012); Kalao Pan African Galleries Bilbao (2014); 798 Art District Gallery Beijing (2015); Museum of African Art Johannesburg (2011); Michael Stevenson Gallery Cape Town (2011); Tate Britain London (2009); Oxford Museum UK (2014); Bedfordbury Gallery London (2010) and South London Gallery (2010).
Mba Bikoro is the recipient of several awards including BBK Artists Award (2017), British Arts Council (2016), Senats Abteilung Kulturelle Angelegenheiten (2016), Fellow Arts Award Villa Vasillief Paris (2019), PRIMARY Artist Fellowship Research Award Nottingham (2019), Preis Der National Gallerie Award Nominee Hambuger Bahnoff Berlin (2019), Goethe Institut South Africa (2016), Fondation Blachère and Afrique Soleil Mali for Best Artist awarded at the 10th Dakar Biennale (2012), Best Discovery Award at New York Cutlog (2013), Ercillas Prize for Best Exhibition Award at FIG Bilbao (2014), HANGAR Research Fellowship Lisbon/Angola (2016-219). She was speaker in the TAZ.Lab Open Conferences at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt presenting Decolonial Cities.
Mba Bikoro is an Associate Lecturer in Political Visual Cultures, Philosophy & Fine Arts, Director of the programmes "Decolonial Performance Tours", "Workshops On Safe Spaces; Racial Structural Discrimination and Migrant & QBiPOC Mental Health Care" and is Artistic Director of the collective Nyabinghi_Lab with projects „Decolonise The Green; Nature, Nudism and Colonial Continuities“ and „Free State Of Barackia: 150 years of Decolonial Urbanisms, Solidarity & NeuBerlin Utopias“ at ZKU and HAU Berlin. She was curatorial director of performance programmes at SAVVY Contemporary (2016-2019) and is now Advisory Board of the Theatre am Parkaue Berlin and moderator at the annual Berlinale Film Festival. She is the Fellow recipient of the Institute For Endomic Research’s „Somatic Charting“ project (2021).
Their most recent significant contributions have been shown in Havana Biennale (2019); Dak'art Biennale Senegal (2012 & 2018); Smithsonian Museum of African Art Washington DC (2013); Biennale De Bogota (2013); Tiwani Contemporary London (2012); Kalao Pan African Galleries Bilbao (2014); 798 Art District Gallery Beijing (2015); Museum of African Art Johannesburg (2011); Michael Stevenson Gallery Cape Town (2011); Tate Britain London (2009); Oxford Museum UK (2014); Bedfordbury Gallery London (2010) and South London Gallery (2010).
Mba Bikoro is the recipient of several awards including BBK Artists Award (2017), British Arts Council (2016), Senats Abteilung Kulturelle Angelegenheiten (2016), Fellow Arts Award Villa Vasillief Paris (2019), PRIMARY Artist Fellowship Research Award Nottingham (2019), Preis Der National Gallerie Award Nominee Hambuger Bahnoff Berlin (2019), Goethe Institut South Africa (2016), Fondation Blachère and Afrique Soleil Mali for Best Artist awarded at the 10th Dakar Biennale (2012), Best Discovery Award at New York Cutlog (2013), Ercillas Prize for Best Exhibition Award at FIG Bilbao (2014), HANGAR Research Fellowship Lisbon/Angola (2016-219). She was speaker in the TAZ.Lab Open Conferences at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt presenting Decolonial Cities.
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Awards 2020 Fonds Darstellende Künste | Berlin 2020 HauptKulturFonds | Berlin 2019 Fellow Arts Award Villa Vasillief | Paris 2019 PRIMARY Artist Fellowship Research Award | Nottingham, UK 2019 Preis Der National Gallerie Award Nominee | Hambuger Bahnoff Berlin 2018 IASPIS Award Grant | Stockholm Sweden 2017 BBK Artist Recipient Award | Berlin 2017 Artist Research Fellowship | Hebbel Am Huffer | Berlin, Germany 2016 Goethe Institut Curator's Grant Award 2016 Senats Abteilung Kulturelle Angelegenheiten | Berlin Germany 2016 Arts Council England Artist Award 2016 Guis Sou Me Le Mbao (I Do Not See You at Mbao) | Apexart International Franchise Program Award 2016 HANGAR Research Fellowship Award | Lisbon, Portugal 2016 Goethe Institut South Africa 2016 TURN Award | Berlin, Germany 2016 Rathaus Schoöneberg Dezentrale KulturArbeit Bezirksamt Tempelhöf-Shöneberg | Berlin, Germany 2015 Arts Studio Research Grant | District Malzfabrik Berlin | Germany 2015 KunstBildende Award | Germany 2015 Performancear O Morir | Norogachi, Mexico 2014 Ercillas Prize for Best Exhibition Award | FIG Bilbao 2014 Manière Noire Artist Residency | Berlin Germany 2014 Savvy Contemporary Artist Residency | Berlin Germany 2013 Best Discovery Award | New York Cutlog 2013 La Otra Biennale Award | curated by Gabriela Salgado | Bogota Colombia 2013 Atelier Sahm Award | Brazzaville DRCongo 2012 Soleil D’Afrique Mali Award | Bamako, Mali 2012 Fondation Blachère Award | Apt, France 2011 Best Performance Art Award in Finland | presented by Presentatiioo 2011 Perpendicular Casa e Rua Award | Belo Horizonte, Brazil 2011 NSB Best Artist of the Year Award | Norbotten, Sweden 2009 Doctoral Research Fellowship | Greenwich University | London 2006 Stanley Picker Gallery Research Scholarship Award | Kingston, London *full CV must be requested privately |
Selected Exhibitions
2019 A History On Lateness | Embracing Realities | Theatre of Düsseldorf - Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus 2019 A History On Lateness | PRIMARY Gallery | Nottingham UK 2019 Black A(n)thena | Listening As Practice | Goethe Institut, Mumbai India 2018 Black A(n)thena (Kosmos) | Radiophonic Funkkolleg III: Politics of Hearing Space | HKW Berlin 2018 Our Tools Were Rudimentary Yet We Pressed On (Sonic Technologies of African Godesses) | Minor Cosmopolitanism | HKW Berlin 2018 Madame Tirailleurs | DAK'Art Biennale, Ancien Palais Dakar & Gallerie Au Fil Du Fleuve St Louis, Senegal 2017 Republik Repair Right To Mourn Right To Monument | Hydra Plantation Radio | Ballhaus Naunynstrasse 2017 Forschungswerkstatt: Kolonialgeshichte in Tempelhof und Schöneberg | Tempelhof-Shöneberg Museum | Berlin, Germany 2017 Africa Raaontare Un Mondo | After The Independence; Introspection of the Identity; the Body & Politics of Distance | Padiglione D’Arte Contemporanea | Milan, Italy 2017 When The Heavens Meet The Earth | Heong Gallery | Cambridge, UK 2017 Unacknowledged Loss | Hebbel Am Huffer | Berlin, Germany 2017 The Parliament Of Bodies; How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? | Documenta14 | Kassel, Germany 2017 Art Paris Art Fair | Ed Cross Fine Art | Paris, France 2017 Von Zeigen Und Schauen | A History On Lateness | Grassi Museum | Leipzig, Germany 2017 On Rhythmanalysis; That Around Which The Universe Evolves | SAVVY Contemporary | FFT Düsseldorf 2017 Beyond Binaries | KZNSA Gallery Durban | South Africa 2016 Guis Sou Me Le Mbao (I Do Not See You at Mbao) | Thiaoryé Senegal 2016 Future Monuments | Beyond Binaris curated by Quala Collective | Durban, South Africa 2016 Future Monuments | Afropean Mimicry & Mockery | Mousonturm, Frankfurt 2016 Hydra Plantation Radio; Last Barometz Collection | Gallerie Wedding | Berlin Germany 2016 Squat Monument Decolonial Archives | Museen Tempelhof-Schoneberg | Berlin Germany 2016 In Arcadia; How Soldiers Became Mermaids | Digging Deep, Crossing Far | Kunstquartier Bethanian | Berlin, Germany 2016 Trümmerberg Kilimanjaro (We Built The Kilimanjaro) | District Malzfabrik | Berlin Germany 2016 Future Monuments | Kunst Bethanien | curated by Alpha Nova Futura Gallery | Berlin Germany 2014 Take This Hammer; Actions Towards Freedom | Kalao Pan African Galleries | Bilbao Spain 2013 El Carrusel | La Otra Biennale | Bogota, Colombia 2013 The Uncomfortable Truth | Earth Matters | Smithsonian Museum of African Art | Washington DC USA 2012 The Middle Passage; Re-staging Alice In Wonderland | Tiwani Contemporary | London UK 2012 The Playground | La Biennale de Dak’Art | Dakar Senegal 2012 The Yellow Crossing; The Peoples’ Waltz | La Biennale de Dak’Art OFF | St Louis Senegal 2011 Space: Modern Currencies on Contemporary African Art | National Museum of African Art | Cape Town, South Africa 2011 A Gaze Into Contemporary African Art | South London Gallery | UK 2011 Simplicity As Irrational Fear | Michael Stevenson Gallery | Cape Town, South Africa 2011 Twist in the Ta(i)le | Savvy Contemporary | Berlin Germany 2010 African Heritage | Bedfordbury Gallery | London UK 2009 Hidden | National Portrait Gallery | London UK |
