October 2022 — Multi-Disciplinary

The East African Soul Train (EAST) is an artist-led initiative that brings artists from across disciplines and geographies together to experiment artistically and critically explore entangled histories and futures. EAST started as a 7-day pop-up residency centred around a journey on East Africa’s historic railways. Rendered impossible during the pandemic, EAST launched Lost+Found, a hybrid residency and research programme exploring how process-driven work is possible in a virtual context. Based on the learnings and outcomes from the first edition in 2021, EAST are now looking to include Lost+Found in their annual programme. This research trip will explore how residency structures and funding mechanisms can be reimagined through artist-led design.

From 12 to 22 October 2022, Kat Kai Kol-Kes (Botswana), Pamela Enyonu (Uganda) and Diya Naidu (India) – members of the global Lost+Found art collective – will embark on a research and relationship building trip to Switzerland starting in Zurich. The aim of the trip is to interrogate and explore the north-south power divide in the creative industries and explore opportunities for reimagining residency structures and funding mechanisms through artist-led programmes and partnership design.

The research trip has three primary goals: to identify and onboard 1-2 Swiss artists to participate in the next edition of Lost+Found; to engage a Swiss institutional partner with aligned values to collaborate on the next edition of Lost+Found and host one of the hybrid performances/installations that emerges from the project; and establish a new 2–3 month residency programme in Switzerland following each Lost+Found for 2-3 artists as part of EAST’s annual offering. The ambition is to allow potent trans-disciplinary collaborations to mature, as well as investing in the leadership capacity of artists ahead of the next train journey or hybrid residency.

BIOGRAPHIES

Pamela Aobo Enyonu is a Kampala, Uganda based visual artist, writer and recovering advertising professional. As a feminist, Pamela focuses on Black, African [female] experiences using her own experiences as a Ugandan woman as a point of departure. Since 2017 to date, Pamela has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Congo, France, Belgium, Israel, Mali, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Uganda and the USA.

Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile is a published author, international award-winning performer, and TED Fellow always in pursuit of ways to remain radically tender. The unabashedly Queer-identifying sociologist, educator, researcher, and development practitioner from Botswana uses solution-driven thinking, communications methodologies and art to bridge gaps caused by systemic oppression. Her work centres decoloniality, Disability advocacy and feminism.

Diya Naidu is a choreographer, dancer, performer, facilitator, arts and culture organiser. She is the director of Citizens of Stage Co. Lab. and was head of Dance Programming at Shoonya Centre for Art & Somatic Practices, Bengaluru. As a choreographer, her work traverses the fields of gender and feminism; violence against women, the role of caste and class in lack of safety for women and the somatic implications of patriarchal penetration.