A Long Way Home

About

East African Soul Train (EAST) brings artists from across disciplines & geographies together on a journey to experiment artistically, critically exploring our entangled histories & futures. Rendered impossible during the pandemic, EAST has grown to include Lost+Found, a hybrid artist-led residency and research programme exploring how we can connect and collaborate virtually, in meaningful ways that push our artistic practice. The increased use of virtual platforms has opened up opportunities for expanding networks and working with new people, but some of the powerful, affective and generative qualities of physical experiences have been lost in this translation. 

Lost+Found uses technology and gamified approaches to catalyse connection, collaboration and cutting-edge work across geographies and disciplines (https://www.eastsoultrain.global/lostfound). Throughout the six-week programme, 16 artists from across Africa/India/Europe, will be guided through an online/offline process that inspires them to play, share perspectives with their peers, take risks and create new collaborative work. In this  programme we work with local partners around the world, use low-tech hacks and repurpose smartphone technologies (Zoom/WhatsApp/GPS/QR). The project will culminate in a series of on/offline performances/installations in India, Kenya, the UK and via Zoom for global audiences starting week commencing 24th July 2023. Following the residency we will produce an NFT collection and works will also be available virtually and as an ‘exhibition in a box’, which artists from the wider EAST collective can also use to create pop-up events in their own localities. Artists also actively participate in an ongoing research programme, generating new questions, insights and perspectives around the complex North/South power dynamics present in creative exchange opportunities and the care needed to address them. This will lead to a webinar and collaborative research paper later in 2023.

Co-Artistic Directors (Alphabetic Order): 

Diya Naidu: Dancer and Choreographer (India) @diyanise

Kat Kai Kol-Kes: Interdisciplinary Artist (Botswana) @katkkolkes

Pamela Enyonu: Visual Artist (Uganda) @syokereart

Further Details on 2023 Collaborating Artists (Alphabetic Order):

Ade (Mandela Matur): Poet, Author, spoken word artist, lyricist and expressive arts therapist 

(South Sudan) – @adethetruth

Aldir Polymer: Video artist, performer, theater maker and an art mediator (Switzerland/Chile) – @aldirpolymeris

Chuma: Artist, Designer, Entrepreneur (Nigeria/Kenya) – @chumaanagbado

Gisou Golshani: multidisciplinary artist (Iran/UK)  – @gisougolshani

Ingabire Gretta: Poet, Actress, Painter (Rwanda) – @ingabire.gretta

joy yaa kincaid: Multidisciplinary artist (UK)  – @joy.kincaid

Justine Wanda: stand-up comedian, writer, and satirist (Kenya) – @justinewanda

Mali Bora: Music Composer and Animator (Kenya) – @mmalibora

Meloe Gennai: poet and a pluridisciplinary artist (Switzerland) – @meloesapphire

Mmakgosi Kgabi: Writer. Actress. Performer. Facilitator (Germany/Botswana) – @blaqq_bear

Moratiwa Molema: Multidisciplinary Artist (Botswana) – @moratiwamolema

Oish: Independent writer, theatre-maker, transmedia artsworker (India) – @oyshtering

Pretty Lodenyi: Choreographer, dancer and teacher (Kenya)  – @pretty_lodenyi

Salome Egger: artist, designer and performer (Switzerland) – @salomeegger

Tristan Siodlak: Multidisciplinary visual artist (Switzerland)  – @tristan_SDK