Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention
Exhibition design, catalogue and poster for the exhibition “Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention” in the Hartware MedienKunstVerrein in Dortmund, Germany. The typography uses Brothers and Nimbus Sans. From the HMKV website:
The exhibition ‘Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention’, curated by Inke Arns and Fabian Saavedra-Lara, puts Afrofuturism in dialogue with alternative technological solutions and imaginations. The speculative narratives unfolding in the artworks on display are confronted with actual inventions from maker scenes in different African countries. This creates a double shift of perspective: While the artworks project decidedly African and diasporic sci-fi visions, the real devices appear as evidence of a technological development that is already underway. The exhibition thus presents Africa as a continent of technological innovation.
The exhibition features 20 international artistic positions and 12 tech projects from the maker scenes in various countries of Africa.
The Afro-Tech key visual combines the afro-futuristic aesthetic of Sun-Ra – referencing Egyptian mythology – with the famous Dortmund landmark and main venue of Afro-Tech: the Dortmunder U.
Left: Sun Ra, Film still from John Coney’s Space Is the Place (1974) (photo © 1974 Jim Newman). Right: Golden U atop the main venue of Afro-Tech exhibition and festival – Dortmunder U (photo Roland Baege)
