Barazani Berlin
Barazani Berlin
Barazani Berlin

XTRÆNCESTRAL: Building Afrofutures

by Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

4 - 18 July 2025

BARAZANI.berlin project space

Spreeufer 6

10178 Berlin 

 

4 July 19:00 Exhibition Opening

 

Activation-workshops in Spanish/English/Portuguese 

5 July, Sat. 13-15:00, Ancestral Practices for an Afrofuture I (open to all)

8 July, Tues. 16-19:00, Ancestral Practices for an Afrofuture II (open to all)

[Fluid time: drop in and out between these hours. Suggested donation 5-10 euros. Bring pieces of fabric or clothes you wish to dye.]

10 July, Thurs. 16-18:00, Afrofuture Imagining and Co-creating (Black/Afrodesdent only space)

 

11 July, Fri. 19:00 “Mandioca” Dinner Performance

[RSVP necessary to barazani.berlin@gmail.com by 10 July. Limited capacity. Suggested donation 5-10 euros.]

 

You can also visit the installation by appointment from 5 July-18 July by writing to colectivokukily@gmail.com. Visits by groups are possible. 

 

+++++++

 

XTRÆNCESTRAL is a multidisciplinary installation that transports the audience to an Afrocentric future where five characters, the Xtræncestors, travel across time-space to share their ancestral wisdom and propose alternative future(s). It premiered as a pavilion commissioned by the 2024 Lagos Biennial, and will now be shared in Berlin for the first time with a series of accompanying workshop and performance activations. 

 

XTRÆNCESTRAL is an artistic project and a philosophical concept created by Kukily collective proposing an Afrofuture built from ancestral memory and the reclaiming of indigenous knowledge, where the traditional dialogues with the experimental, heritage with the new and nature with technology. 

 

How does the future look from the perspective of Black and Afrodiasporic memory? What possibilities appear when we dream together, from the body, from our daily practices and from our artistic practices? We invite the audience to actively participate and reflect on these questions with us, and to imagine the present and the future from an Afrofuturist perspective.

 

Work created and conceptualized by Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

Members of Kukily: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Jasmin Sánchez, Lina Lasso

Performers in the live and audiovisual pieces: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Jasmin Sánchez, Lina Lasso & Florencia Gomes

Architect: Florencia Gomes

Sound design: Nancla

Video art and 2D collage: Collaboration between Kukily & Tamara Moura Costa

Editing of video art: Tamara Moura Costa

Camera assistants: Ngwazile, Renata

Archival videos: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Tamara Moura Costa

This exhibition is supported by ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, as well as BARAZANI.berlin who is funded by the Berlin Senate. Additional support for past iterations of the work from the We Are Family Foundation and the Puffin Foundation, with residency support from PACT Zollverein (Germany), Mariana Pacheco & Federico Bejarano (Argentina), and Casa Sofia (Argentina).



About Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

Kukily works transnationally and interdisciplinarily in audiovisuals, installations, performance, community-engaged art practices and cultural management. The collective was founded in Argentina in 2016 and is made up of four members/founders: Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Lina Lasso, Jasmin Sánchez, and Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald. Our nationalities and origins include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Liberia. We work on themes such as Afro-diasporic identity, self-representation, memory, ancestral knowledge, and the projection of a Black future. We have presented our work in Argentina at the CC Kirchner, the CC de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, the National Historical Museum, and the CC de la Cooperación, among others. We presented our work “Negra, negra, negra soy” in Connecticut, USA, in 2022 and 2023. We were artists in residence at PACT Zollverein (Germany) in March 2023. Our work “XTRÆNCESTRAL” premiered at the Lagos Biennial (Nigeria) in February 2024. Our co-founders are currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Berlin, Germany, which we consider to be co-hubs of Kukily.

We formalized as an NGO (asociación civil) in Argentina in 2023, with three main objectives: (1) Support the Afrodescendent population in Argentina and make their cultures visible through gatherings, events, festivals, workshops, and artistic production. (2) Forge alliances and exchanges between Black national and international organizations to develop cultural and political projects together. (3) Create accessible and safe spaces that guarantee the economic, social and cultural inclusion and the human rights of people from the Afro-descendant, Afro-Argentine, African, Afro-indigenous and indigenous communities, LGBTQI, women, migrants, and people from different social classes.

Website- https://kukilycollective.my.canva.site

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kukilycolectivo/

Barazani Berlin

XTRÆNCESTRAL: Building Afrofutures

by Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

4 - 18 July 2025

BARAZANI.berlin project space

Spreeufer 6

10178 Berlin 

 

4 July 19:00 Exhibition Opening

 

Activation-workshops in Spanish/English/Portuguese 

5 July, Sat. 13-15:00, Ancestral Practices for an Afrofuture I (open to all)

8 July, Tues. 16-19:00, Ancestral Practices for an Afrofuture II (open to all)

[Fluid time: drop in and out between these hours. Suggested donation 5-10 euros. Bring pieces of fabric or clothes you wish to dye.]

10 July, Thurs. 16-18:00, Afrofuture Imagining and Co-creating (Black/Afrodesdent only space)

 

11 July, Fri. 19:00 “Mandioca” Dinner Performance

[RSVP necessary to barazani.berlin@gmail.com by 10 July. Limited capacity. Suggested donation 5-10 euros.]

 

You can also visit the installation by appointment from 5 July-18 July by writing to colectivokukily@gmail.com. Visits by groups are possible. 

 

+++++++

 

XTRÆNCESTRAL is a multidisciplinary installation that transports the audience to an Afrocentric future where five characters, the Xtræncestors, travel across time-space to share their ancestral wisdom and propose alternative future(s). It premiered as a pavilion commissioned by the 2024 Lagos Biennial, and will now be shared in Berlin for the first time with a series of accompanying workshop and performance activations. 

 

XTRÆNCESTRAL is an artistic project and a philosophical concept created by Kukily collective proposing an Afrofuture built from ancestral memory and the reclaiming of indigenous knowledge, where the traditional dialogues with the experimental, heritage with the new and nature with technology. 

 

How does the future look from the perspective of Black and Afrodiasporic memory? What possibilities appear when we dream together, from the body, from our daily practices and from our artistic practices? We invite the audience to actively participate and reflect on these questions with us, and to imagine the present and the future from an Afrofuturist perspective.

 

Work created and conceptualized by Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

Members of Kukily: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Jasmin Sánchez, Lina Lasso

Performers in the live and audiovisual pieces: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Jasmin Sánchez, Lina Lasso & Florencia Gomes

Architect: Florencia Gomes

Sound design: Nancla

Video art and 2D collage: Collaboration between Kukily & Tamara Moura Costa

Editing of video art: Tamara Moura Costa

Camera assistants: Ngwazile, Renata

Archival videos: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Tamara Moura Costa

This exhibition is supported by ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, as well as BARAZANI.berlin who is funded by the Berlin Senate. Additional support for past iterations of the work from the We Are Family Foundation and the Puffin Foundation, with residency support from PACT Zollverein (Germany), Mariana Pacheco & Federico Bejarano (Argentina), and Casa Sofia (Argentina).



About Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective

Kukily works transnationally and interdisciplinarily in audiovisuals, installations, performance, community-engaged art practices and cultural management. The collective was founded in Argentina in 2016 and is made up of four members/founders: Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Lina Lasso, Jasmin Sánchez, and Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald. Our nationalities and origins include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Liberia. We work on themes such as Afro-diasporic identity, self-representation, memory, ancestral knowledge, and the projection of a Black future. We have presented our work in Argentina at the CC Kirchner, the CC de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, the National Historical Museum, and the CC de la Cooperación, among others. We presented our work “Negra, negra, negra soy” in Connecticut, USA, in 2022 and 2023. We were artists in residence at PACT Zollverein (Germany) in March 2023. Our work “XTRÆNCESTRAL” premiered at the Lagos Biennial (Nigeria) in February 2024. Our co-founders are currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Berlin, Germany, which we consider to be co-hubs of Kukily.

We formalized as an NGO (asociación civil) in Argentina in 2023, with three main objectives: (1) Support the Afrodescendent population in Argentina and make their cultures visible through gatherings, events, festivals, workshops, and artistic production. (2) Forge alliances and exchanges between Black national and international organizations to develop cultural and political projects together. (3) Create accessible and safe spaces that guarantee the economic, social and cultural inclusion and the human rights of people from the Afro-descendant, Afro-Argentine, African, Afro-indigenous and indigenous communities, LGBTQI, women, migrants, and people from different social classes.

Website- https://kukilycollective.my.canva.site

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kukilycolectivo/