AFROTOPIE

We invite you on a journey. To the past – forgotten and yet so close. To the present, which seems unfamiliar and distant. To the future which we can shape together if we only dare.

The first stop: the Embassy of the Polish People's Republic

A journey back to the time when Poles and Ghanaians had trust in great leaders who promised them modernization, African students in Poland met in Lodz, and Ryszard Kapuściński – as the first Polish correspondent on the African continent – wondered what would happen ‘If All of Africa…’

The Twilight of Wizards, dir. Tadeusz Jaworski, Poland 1965 ©WFDiF

Official visit of the President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah to Poland. In the first row from the left: Kwame Nkrumah and Aleksander Zawadzki. Danuta Rago, 1961 © Christopher Grabowski / Archeology of Photography Foundation

Poland-Ghana. Ghana-Poland

Oliwia Bosomtwe

Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) – Polish reporter, writer, poet, publicist, and photographer. Janusz Sobolewski, 1979 / Forum

Ryszard Kapuściński. Afro-pessimism and Afro-optimism

Oliwia Bosomtwe

Students from Ghana. Tadeusz Zagoździński, 1970 / PAP

Łódź. African Students in the Polish People’s Republic

Oliwia Bosomtwe

The second stop: Watch out who you trust

A journey into the present – into reality that we do not have to imagine. It is sufficient to see it. The guides are artists from Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo – and they are sharing with us a view from the inside.

Room 1

Gazing Through Fabric

Room 2

Politics of Ordinariness, Ordinariness of Politics

Room 3

Souls, Spirits, Deities

Room 4

Afro-Melancholy

Room 5

Identity palette

The third stop: Yesterday and tomorrow now belong to us

The future is created through dialog. The ongoing debates about the past are for us to imagine what is to come. Our curatorial team invites artists, experts, curators, and researchers to think together about possible scenarios for a better tomorrow.