EXTT

Questions of the day

What does SKIÁ mean to you personally and why?

Memory. The images of real incidents that are past. Like a shadow is a representation of a person or an object. Clara/dance

The subconscious. It’s the shadow of consciousness. Also the connection between dark and light. Lilou/music

If Skiá was a sound/a movement what would it be and why?

Whispering sounds. Creepy and a little crazy. Emmanuella/music

Doing the shoulder and twist. Skiá to me is kind of complicated.

Belendjwa/dance

Reverb and delay, repeating the original sound, when it’s already gone. A reminder of the source. Lilou/music

Voices and echo. Tones and inflections can create an atmosphere of warmth and cold that warrants prejudice in an echo, the distinction is much evident with layers and reverberation.

Ato/music

Child pose. It represents comfort, shelter, rest and reenergizing.

Angelica/dance

Parallel narrative, going up and down, breathing in and out, bowing up and down with head on the floor and back. Pablo/dance

A slow, subtle and shady movement. Shadows follow silently.

Clara/dance

Aggressive breathing. That moment when you’re in running, then stop and you’re about to run again. Maxime/music

Yibor Kojo Yibor - Ankonam, Accra

We have seen the worse of times but never without the best of the arts. Art in its liquid form, metaphorically speaking, has always wandered into our private homes and secret places to do to us what only art can do. In the area of music, dance, drama, the spoken word of poetry, new media etc. these forms never ceased to be present in homes during the isolated periods of lockdown. These were the times when artists and creatives through the medium and power of their arts managed to link and connect in diverse ways to collaborate, partner and to continue creating for their audiences.

It was during these times, that it became necessary for people to actually work and perform duties from home. This became the new normal to many around the world, and how it tuned, impacted everything humanly possible. The general impact and effect of covid made it clear all over the world that no one likes to live by themselves in isolation for long, so that, as social beings we need each other in a built environment to belong. It has become imperative that, we cannot afford but to come out of our chambers and closets to hold high collaboration and work hand in hand to see real change amongst us as people in one world.

Much has happened within the creative landscape in the last few years. Our commitment to keeping relationships and collaborations has been key and necessary to the work we do. We at Haduwa Arts and Culture Institute together with Kabawil e.V are glad to have managed a Framewalk mini with fewer participants than last year. Something that looked impossible at the time, turned out so well, even though covid was still in the air with us.

Thanks to the continued support and partnership of the School of Creative Arts; University of Education Winneba and the head of department, we were able to pull through to see a successful Framewalk in Germany in 2021. We cannot tell the full success story without mentioning the German Embassy in Accra, the head of visa session and the head of cultural affairs for their immeasurable support and consistency to the cause of realising Framewalk, and strengthening arts and culture, through a cross-cultural exchange between Ghana and Germany

We are still here, after more than a decade, connecting people and places, arts and cultures. The light of collaboration has lead the way until now. Permit me to end with a quote by the American Industrialist Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”Here is our success story told through the light of collaboration.

MUSIK– MUSIK – MUSIK

Clementine Jesdinsky-Schwander Was waren das für intensive Dezembertage, da bei Kabawil im Flingeraner Hinterhof!

skià / shadows war das Thema und ich kam mir schon rein körperlich nach einer Impfung auf eine abklingende Erkältung wie im Schattenbereich meiner eigenen Möglichkeiten vor, als ich auf diesen Haufen genialer Menschen traf, die mit ihren kreativen Ideen, Fähigkeiten und ihrer Präsenz einen wahren musikalischen Rausch entfachen konnten. Ich war als music-instructor vor Ort, fühlte mich als Sängerin vor allem für die stimmliche Seite der Student:innen zuständig. Dass ich im Laufe des Framewalks vor allem das Gefühl hatte, dass ich von diesen Musikerpersönlichkeiten viel lernen konnte, lag nicht nur an meiner bemitleidenswerten Konstitution. Mit Robo war ein Vollblutmusiker vor Ort, der singen, komponieren, Piano, Gitarre, Bass und Schlagzeug spielen kann sowie wichtige Impulse setzte, wenn eine Idee zu versickern drohte. Mit Thomas war ein Profi vor Ort, der nicht nur Bass, Schlagzeug und Synthesizer spielen kann, sondern der auch ein Gefühl für Instrumentation und Arrangements hat.

Die Teilnehmenden waren stimmlich in beeindruckender Form! Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass sie die eigene Stimme schon längst in ihre musikalische Arbeit integriert hatten und eine Anleitung gar nicht brauchten. So konnten wir wunderbare Ausflüge in die Schattenbereiche der Stimme unternehmen und mit im Hinterhof gefundenen Geräuschen zu abstrakten Soundloops kombinieren, die später den Tänzern als Soundkulisse dienten.

Der Zeitplan war unheimlich straff, der Input enorm. In manchen Stunden spürte man, wie die Ideen in den Köpfen kreisten, aber keinen Ausgang fanden. Wir saßen oft stumm im Musikraum und hörten die Tänzer:innen nebenan arbeiten, Jede und Jeder in seine Musik im Kopf versunken. Da hätte man den Eindruck von Stillstand bekommen können.

Aber das war nur ein Sortieren und Rumräumen, die nötige Vorarbeit, der Auftakt zu einem rauschhaften, mitreißenden Fluss von musikalischen Ideen, denen Jede:r etwas hinzufügen konnte und die oft in unvorhersehbare Richtungen gingen. Das war einfach toll!

Die Online Premiere war das Präsentieren einzelner Stücke, die in diesen paar Tagen entstanden waren. Tanz, Spoken Word und Musik. Das Abenteuer, bei der Entstehung der Stücke dabei gewesen zu sein, werde ich nie vergessen!

MUSIC – MUSIC - MUSIC

Samuel Agyeman Boahen (Robo}

First of all, I would like to talk about the reception upon arrival in Germany and during the entire stay. The reception was very friendly and I personally felt at home. We were immediately taken to our place of rest and I had a good time with the allocated place of accommodation. Our welfare was taking care of very well. We had enough food and rest after each training session.

Secondly, was the space to work with the other artists. As a music instructor, I had no challenge working with the other music instructors who lived in Dusseldorf; Clementine and Thomas. We worked in harmony and co-existed to bring various ideas together. Even though we had different musical perspectives, we were able to join ideas to create amazing musicals pieces in realistic and abstract ideas.

Also, access to equipment and gadgets during the preparatory stage was quite ok. Kabawil made all the music instruments I needed available to help facilitate the music creation process. Performance and/or rehearsal space was ok and made the raw material staging very easy.

Finally, the performance night was very ok, even though we had to fix everything together within a short time. Performance was amazing and on point and we used every available space given to make the music experience of quite a standard.

My only observation or something I would like to be considered and improved upon, was the live stream audio. It was ok but we could work on a more professional sound output next time. Thank You.

MY FRAMEWALK EXPERIENCE

Belendjwa

FRAMEWALK was a really amazing experience for me. As a black German person I am hardly around any other black artists. This was amazing to be with people who look like me and to feel empowered just by them being in the room. I loved how we worked in such an interdisciplinary way and how we all learned from each other soooo much. I love that there was a focus on working hard but also a focus on having so much fun. I am still in contact with most people and hope to be able to do another FRAMEWALK in the future.

Emmanuella Pokoo-Aikins

I wish that I could remember the German language as much as my own. Thoughts of the language keep ringing in my head as I look back at how great the trip was and loving the experience I had.

Before I had the opportunity to visit Germany, it was through Framewalk. Framewalk is a cross cultural program run by Kabawil in Germany, Düsseldorf. Getting to be a member of this program, one has to prove one’s work in forms of videos and pictures, which I did and which I will also say it was a form of interview. My works were of me dancing and playing the violin. By God's grace, I was accepted and joined the Framewalk family. I was excited especially when we had the information that we will be having a workshop that will be held in Germany which was going to be my very first time of traveling outside the country. Preparations towards the travel began and I had the opportunity to meet the other Framewalkers when we had a face to face interaction with the global director of Framewalk, Petra Kron.

We arrived in Germany on the 5th of December, 2021 and were picked up at the airport and taken to the hostel. Later in the day, we went to the studio where we were going to work until the end of the workshop and to also get familiar with the routes and trams to take since we would be going on our own.

Work started the following day and had everyone ready and excited. We met with the German participants and continued with the day's activities.

Being a member of Framewalk and also getting the opportunity to travel outside Ghana has really taught me a lot, mainly about improving my basic skills. I will like to share a few.

First of all it taught and made me really understand time management. Knowing perfectly that poor time management leaves you running perpetually late and even missing important connections.

The second thing was about teamwork. Not collaborating with the other team members makes work difficult hence drags and delays the day’s activities. Working together and understanding each other helps in reaching a targeted goal.

Communication skills was the third thing I learnt. In our day to day activities, communication plays a vital role and meeting people from a different culture is always amazing but becomes difficult when you are not able to communicate and understand their language mainly. Adjusting helps and makes you a good listener and a more careful communicator in all interactions.

Visualisation also helped mostly through my stay, especially when a friend and I decided to go home alone after an art exhibition one evening. We would have been lost if not for knowing the routes either to the studio or back to the hostel by foot or by the tram.