Program 

Transformative Ecosystems in Practice  
June 5-6, 2025 - Kamene Cultural Center & Research Space and NCAI, Nairobi  

This program takes the shape of an experimental research forum, organized around several interrelated themes: Practices of Freedom and Refusal; The Earth as a Wayfinder; Exploring the Sonic Archive, and Restitution as a Practice of Care. This program also highlights the concept of reparative futures and (im)material culture in relation to artistic and design strategies, methodologies and practices.  The multidisciplinary approach foregrounds the importance of artistic and design practices in relation to reimagining restitution — and aims to stretch the notion of what restitution is or can be (beyond the objects).    

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Carnival as a Conjuring of History and Memory
February 9-15, 2025 - Alice Yard, Port of Spain 

With this collaboration and program, we extend Sustaining the Otherwise to the Caribbean. With the topic of ‘carnival and the carnivalesque’ as a point of entry for critical engagement, we explored the importance of mask making in relation to artistic practices within the region, and in relation to West Africa.  This was an opportunity to engage with the notion of  ‘a carnival space’, touching upon topics of ritual/memory, history/memory in terms of thinking about carnival as a conjuring of history and memory, highlighting the links between these topics/practices within a Caribbean context and as understood in relation to Africa.    

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Ring di Alarm: On Restitution, Lingering Colonial Histories and Other Diseases
October 25, 2024 - Wereldmuseum, Leiden 

In the one-day gathering, Ring di Alarm: On Restitution, Lingering Colonial Histories and Other Diseases, we explored themes such as Memory Work, Navigating Unmapped Archives and Listening to Everyday Histories. These sessions explored how artists, designers, thinkers, activists, and communities in Africa and its diasporas imagine and practice epistemological approaches to restitution and the return of knowledge. In what ways can we stretch the notion of restitution to also include complex strategies of reparation to confront the injustices of the present?  

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The Earth as a Wayfinder
September 19-20, 2024  -  Lusaka Contemporary Art Center (LuCAC), Zambia

We are excited to announce Sustaining the Otherwise: The Earth as a Wayfinder, an experimental research forum curated by Amal Alhaag and Selene Wendt. Taking place September 19-20, 2024, at Lusaka Contemporary Art Center (LuCAC), this two-day event is designed to foster meaningful dialogues around restitution, with particular emphasis on the importance of transformative ecosystems.  

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Unruly Knowledge: Rehearsing for Epistemic Restitution
May 16-19, 2024 - The African Art Book Fair, Dakar 

This four-day program was developed by Amal Alhaag and Selene Wendt in collaboration with Pascale Obolo, Afrikadaa, and the African Art Book Fair and aimed to explore how artists, designers, thinkers, activists, and communities in Africa and its diasporas address the concept of epistemic restitution, and the return of knowledge. The Unruly Knowledge sessions were conceived as a pluriversal call and response to the African Art Book Fair program.

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Restitution: Thinking Beyond Cultural Heritage Objects
May 2-3, 2024 - Nordic Black Theatre, Oslo 

The collaborative research chapter of Sustaining the Otherwise was launched with a two-day symposium at Nordic Black Theatre, Oslo. This gathering was organized around four interrelated themes: (Un)learning Decolonial Curating; Disrupting the Archives; Performing Decoloniality and Artistic Practices of Storytelling, which were discussed in a workshop environment where participants and guest speakers exchanged ideas, strategies, and reference points. 

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