I Am Here

  • Giulia Casalini (Advisor)

Activity: Public engagement and outreachPerformance Arts/Exhibitions/Festival outside Roehampton

Description

This is a ritual of gratitude.
This is not just a performance. It is a meditation.
An act of presence, generosity, and connection.
Think about why you are here
and where is here
(what is here?)
Think about what you have sacrificed – and gained – because you are here.
Being here for each other.
In this very moment, full of possibilities and togetherness.

In these challenging times for LGBTQI+ people in Ghana, we are homaging one of the most powerful voices in the country. Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (also known as crazinisT artisT) is a transgender multidisciplinary artist, friend, mentor, mother and activist, who calls herself a ‘transvatar’. The mantra ‘I am here’ reflects our gratitude to her as a generative force of inspiration, love and activism for the local and international communities of all walks of life.

The ritual took place in January 2022, in the botanical garden of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. In this place, together with the shrieking sounds of bats, we are uniting our bodies and souls in a spiritual and political act of resistance, connecting and grounding our individual and collective intentions.

In this 360 experience, we invite the viewer to take the place of Va-Bene and reflect on their own potential as agents of social change. This is not a performance but a meditative ritual of presence and solidarity.

This work was developed as part of a month-long residency at pIAR (perfocraZe International Artist Residency), the residencies that Va-Bene has founded in her studio-house. The participants include artists in residence, regular assistants, interns and the extended family gravitating around pIAR. I Am Here is a collaboration between Giulia Casalini, Niya B and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT].
PeriodJan 2022

Keywords

  • performance
  • virtual reality
  • video
  • Ghana
  • LGBTQ
  • queer
  • transgender