Led by: Nii Obodai

Participants:
Lion Maré Djaci (PT/ANG)
Henrique J Paris (ANG)
Rafael de Oliveira (ANG/PT)
Sofia Yala (PT/ANG)
Odair Monteiro (CV)
Nuno Silas (MOZ)

Invited curators:
André Cunha (ANG)
Filipa Oliveira (PT)

June 24th, Thursday, 6pm – Talk with participants artists Lion Maré Djáci (PT/ANG), Henrique J Paris (ANG), Rafael de Oliveira (ANG/PT) and Curator André Cunha (ANG)

June 25th, Friday, 6pm – Talk with participants artists Sofia Yala ( PT/ANG ), Odair Monteirto (CV) and Nuno Silas (MOZ) and Curador Filipa Oliveira (PT)

June 26th, Saturday, 7.30pm-10pm – special dinner and Concert to be announced – Info: hangarcia.production@gmail.com

June 30th, Wednesday, 4pm-8pm -Open Day – presentation of the works by the artists in residency

We’re all in the vortex of a pandemic that’s much more than just a viral invasion. Everything we think we know as a norm is being challenged. Politics, cultures, histories, relationships, lovers, friendships families, environment, space, all our concepts of relating are molding us into a definite uncertainty. We know more than ever that none of us have any idea of what tomorrow is going to be like, yet one thing is for sure, we are each being called into realizing being more in tune with our state of awareness and through this, the one thing we can all learn trust is how better to follow our inner voice.

Through the gateway of our workshop, From A Distance Calling, we’re a small group of photography artists following through with the compelling urge to journey the coming days together, knowing that we will not be the same on our return.
We seek to look into what we can’t see, questioning ourselves in order to break free of our limitations and emerge renewed and inspired with critical creative energy.

This Residency / Workshop is supported by:
UCREATE is a Creative Europe project taking place in Belgium, Hungary, Portugal and Italy led by 4 artistic organizations (International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (BE); HANGAR (PT); Mus-e Hungary (HUN); BIG SUR (IT)) aiming to use the arts and artistic co-creation as a means for creating social bonds between individuals.

Francis Nii Obodai Provençal (b.1963) is a Ghanaian photographer based in Accra, Ghana and Maputo, Mozambique. Throughout his career, Nii Obodai has documented the complexity of his world through photography, audio, and text. He is particularly passionate about photography as a medium for recording and celebrating the unseen and unexpected dynamics of everyday life on the African continent. His work explores our complex relationships with the environment and with one another. His deep interest in how the past is remembered and the photographers role in that process stems in part from aphantasia, a condition which prevents him from forming images in his mind. Photography has become the means by which Nii Obodai remembers the past and conjures the present.

In 1998 he co-established Nuku Café in Accra, a vibrant space for contemporary artists committed to a socially and politically conscious practice. It has evolved into Nuku Studio, which engages in collaborative academic research projects and organizes an annual programme of workshops aimed at developing photographic and visual communication skills. The studio also founded the eponymous Nuku Photo Festival, Ghana’s first photography festival.

Nii Obodai’s work has been exhibited at the Addis Ababa Festival (Ethiopia), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Bamako Encounters (Bamako, Mali), Alliance Française (Accra, Ghana), Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK) The Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano (Mozambique), Moesegaard Museum (Aarhus, Denmark) and Beverly Art Gallery (Beverly, UK).