Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi: prodiGirl Species: We are the Earth
PLACE: Titanik Gallery, Itäinen Rantakatu 8
DATE & TIME: Performance: Wed 3.9. at 18:30–19:30. Exhibition: Thu 4.9. – Sun 7.9. during the gallery’s opening hours Thu–Fri 12–18, Sat-Sun 12-16.
DURATION: Performance 45-60 min
No pre-registration needed.
LANGUAGE: English / None
Information about accecibility here
ProdiGirls. As the source of both life and death, regeneration and revival, clay is a bridge between humanity and the universe, the earth and the spirits of our ancestors. In this work, Va-Bene offers her body to undergo a ritual transformation using clay. Members of the audience are invited to participate in the ritual joining the humming song Va-Bene sings, and some of them take turns to rub the material and reflect on bodies beyond our imaginations.
Clay-earth grounds and provides strength, endurance, and an intimate experience of death. Emerging from a life-changing ritual and connection to both materials, this work reimagines humans beyond cis-normative binaries to challenge the marginalization of trans and queer bodies, promoting a more inclusive understanding of womanhood, nature, the earth, life, and death.
The documentation and traces of the work will remain as a video installation in Titanik.
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (sHit/she/her) [aka crazinisT artisT] is a trans woman with the pronoun sHit if not She. Va-Bene lives in Kumasi, Ghana but works internationally as a multidisciplinary “artivist”, curator, philanthropist, artvangelist and a mentor across several countries. She is the founder and artistic director of crazinisT artisT studiO (TTO), Our Railway Cinema Gallery (ORCG), perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) and Trans African Ambassadors Network (TAAN). All of which aimed at radicalising the arts and promoting exchange between international and local argents and critical thinkers. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalised groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, She employs her own body as a thought-provoking tool confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, injustice, violence, objectification, internalised oppression, anti-blackness, systemic indoctrination and more.