Groaming Gallery: Art in a Backpack

$Endi Tupja - Iconographies Of Belonging: In the audio essay 'Iconographies of Belonging' artist Endi Tupja maps out several coordinates and journeys that others misread, questioned or were simply not interested in. Albania, the country where Tupja was born and grew up, is described as a place of belonging and longing that is constantly questioned: ‘where are you from? Go back to your East’. New fractured identities are born as a result. Tupja crafts a rhythm of urgency, yet within a steady pace of clear forwardness and determination. Her voice will not stop until the threads have been revealed in all their entanglements.The artist navigates between factual descriptions and a guttural flow, where anger is allowed to flourish in new forms of tenderness. Anger about the impossibility to carve a space of discernment from outside projections, about white feminism that doesn’t live up to its good intentions, and anger about the tragic life of activist Adelina Sejdini, who was kidnapped from$

Kim Karabo Makin presents: Unpacking Satellite Activism: ‘’ is an extended conversation hosted by Kim Karabo Makin along with artist friends and colleagues – Ann Gollifer and Thero Makepe, at the home of the Art Residency Centre in Gaborone, Botswana. The conversation unpacks Makin’s final outcome of her radio residency with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, a sound piece entitled Satellite Activism. In so doing, Makin engages a conversation with Gollifer in considering her practice as an archivist, as well as in unpacking the potential for an exploration of the archive as ‘living’, with specific regard to the strong presence of oral traditions in the context of Botswana. In addition, Makin engages Makepe in reflecting on the role of the DJ as an archivist of sorts, in curating the living archive. Furthermore, with a look at the cultural significance of radio in the local soundscape, the three collectively present the sort of intergenerational passing on of knowledge that Satellite Activism embrac by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

63 min listen

Alina Lupu - A Collision With The Past: “A collision with the past” is a year-long attempt at approaching the history of the Kalenderpanden, a former squat located in the East of Amsterdam. The squat was in operation between 1996 and 2000, and, after its eviction, it was turned into luxury lofts. The piece uses archive material that the squatters from that time made available: a documented timeline of both the squatting and the eviction. It also tries to touch upon how the practice of squatting changed in the past decades, since the 2010 squatting ban, and weaves in and out of how one can still get access to the Kalenderpanden building, two decades after. While putting together the piece, between November 2020 and November 2021, there has been a resurgence of squatting as a housing practice in Amsterdam, as well as nationwide. So with this in mind, the piece links the Kalenderpanden to the newly squatted Hotel Mokum as well as a building on Spuistraat 59 and one on Ringdijk 8, both s by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

38 min listen

A conversation on ~ the power of doing nothing: “I’ve probably inherited my mother’s exhaustion and my grandmother’s exhaustion...There’s such a thing as intergenerational debt – and it’s not just economic, it’s also energetic.” - Navild Acosta interviewed in Schon Magazine How can we think about notions of human ‘productivity’, sleep as a space for resistance, and the enduring power structures that permeate current ideas around work and rest? Bringing together Flavia Dzodan, Quinsy Gario, and Joy Mariama Smith, we’ll engage in conversations around the politicised and racialised structure of sleep inequality and rest, the impacts of 24/7 productivity, the productive body, and activism as it intersects with these systems. How can we talk about these questions in light of our present moment of enforced ‘rest’ for some and enforced work for others. How can we respond to the structures, fragilities, and failures of systems that are being made visible, now more than ever? Our guests speak f by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

232 min listen

Kim Karabo Makin - on Gaborone, 1985: “The hell started at about half past one on the morning of... the fourteenth of June” - (Nyelele & Drake, 1985) A broadcast of the sound piece on Gaborone, 1985 (2021, 3:38 min) marks the start of the residency of artist Kim Karabo Makin, who lives in Botswana and is one of four artists selected for a Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio residency during 2022. "on Gaborone, 1985 considers the June 14 raid on Gaborone by the South African Defence Force (SADF) as a traumatic turning point for Botswana’s creative development – resulting in the demise of Medu Art Ensemble overnight. Positioned centrally to my Master of Fine Art body of work – the doors of culture shall be opened (2021), on Gaborone, 1985 notably includes a Radio Botswana jingle interspliced with segments from the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Special Report, as well as then-President of Botswana Masire’s reaction to the raid, and South by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

4 min listen

Kim Karabo Makin - Satellite Activism: A 3 part sound collage & audio-visual broadcast for Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee Duration: 25 minutes Production by Thabiso Keaikitse This broadcast marks the end of the residency of artist Kim Karabo Makin, who lives in Botswana and is one of four artists selected for a Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio residency during 2022. Artist statement by Kim Karabo Makin: An intertextual audio essay which endeavours to explore the transnational space that Medu Art Ensemble has occupied historically ‘in another South Africa’, with a focus on the route that connects Gaborone, Botswana and Amsterdam, the Netherlands (via Chicago). Satellite Activism notably traces the life and legacy of Medu Art Ensemble in contemporaneity, with a particular look at themes that connect the Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, 5 – 7 July 1982 in Gaborone, to the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, December 1987 in Amsterdam. Additionally, with particular reference to the A by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

25 min listen

This Ineluctable Opera - Variation 1: Barrel of the soul’s many inhabitants slurp alongside the stillness which slithers past the cries, and deep beyond the breath is that sensorial forgetfulness held by these walls. Recommended listening method: headphones, and a comfortable seat. Mikatsiu’s research during the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee residency focused on remote sensing, consideration of the different communication abilities of dancing spiders, questioning what is needed to sense the detached regions of one’s own body, and tuning enunciation towards melodies as they unravel stories into perceivable frequencies. by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

8 min listen