'Eroding Pillars Of Black' by @Ayotheartist, collage, 2019

©Photography by Lisa Frantz

Black visual artists based in Austria, South Africa and the UK will come together to share their experiences of creating and holding space through visual art expression.

What does it mean to take up space in established art spaces? How do we create new creative spaces rooted in the multitude of different Black experiences? What are the secrets to using visibility beyond the performative? How can each of us find our own authentic creative expression?

This panel discussion will look at the complexities, joys and challenges of making a mark as a Black visual artist.

Moderator, JG Danso (she/her): IG @jgdanso, FB @jgdanso, villavida.at, www.hint.wien

Panelist, (he/his): Ayo Aloba, IG @ayotheartist, www.afroschnitzel.org

Panelist, (they/their): Mercy Thokozane Minah, IG @iamafreedom

Panelist, (she/her): Sonia E Barrett, IG @soniaelizabethbarrett, https://www.sebarrett.com

19:00 – 19:05: Welcome

19:05 – 19:15: Panellists introductions

19:15 – 20:00: Panel

20:00 – 20:20: Q&A

20:20 – 20:30: Thank You & Wrap Up

The Black Creatives Taking Up Space Series is organised by volunteers of Black People in Vienna and Hint.Wien.

We encourage you to support the Black artists and intersectional cultural associations represented here by making a voluntary donation with your free ticket reservation.

JG Danso (she/ her)

Instagram @jgdanso. Photo credit Anna Lisa Erdemgil Brandstätter

Moderator, JG Danso (she/her)

JG Danso (she/ her) is an equalities and human rights practitioner; Chair of the queer centered intersectional association www.hint.wien and Resident Poet at Villa Vida Café. JG's illustrated poetry works bring together artists from multiple countries. JG is a Londonner of Ghanain Sierra Leonean heritage, living in Vienna.

Instagram @hint.wien, @jgdanso, facebook @jgdanso; www.hint.wien

Ayo Aloba (he/his)

IG @ayotheartist, www.afroschnitzel.org, ©Photography Portrait by Lisa Frantz

Panelist, Ayo Aloba (he/his)

Ayo Aloba is a Vienna based Nigerian actor, percussionist, music producer and co-founder of the electronic group and label Afroschnitzel. He also directs film and his first short film, Spiral, won the Texas Short Film Black Festival. As Ayotheartist he focuses on visual expression through digital collage to playfully reimagine identity, culture and politics. Ayo is of Nigerian heritage, based in Vienna.

Ayo Aloba (he/his), IG @ayotheartist, www.afroschnitzel.org https://ayotheartist.bandcamp.com

Mercy Thokozane Minah (they/their)

IG: @iamafreedom. Photo credit Mercy Thokozane Minah

Panelist, Mercy Thokozane Minah (they/their)

Mercy Thokozane Minah (they/their) is a queer, non-binary multi-disciplinary artist who works across visual, literature and performance.

In their digital repertoire, Mercy has created several series of original digital oil paintings: Regular , Black Sofa, Together, Flower Bois, Room 204, Eaters, Heat, Queer Festive Season a series based on the Beyoncé's Black is King and #Blacktober 2020.

In addition to private commisions, Mercy’s digital oil paintings have featured in Exist Loudly   Reclaiming Ugly’s Black Healing October. 2021 Mercy created a survivorship zine with the support of WE AS OURSELVES (a partnership between the Center for Cultural Power , #MeToo, Times Up and the National Women's Law Center) titled 'UN-GENDERING VIOLENCE: a personal processing of surviving violence from a non-binary and social justice perspective'.

Mercy says:

'I have a very simple purpose for the things I make: studying and conveying the intricacies of Black, Queer and Trans intimacies. I believe where we rest in our most intimate moments, whether these are moments of interpersonal dysfunction or tenderness, is deeply sacred. And storytelling through art offers ample opportunity to venerate that sacred space.'

Mercy is a prolific writer; their published work span hort stories, horror and non-fiction . It has appeared in Queer Africa: New and Collected Fiction; Outside the XY: Black and Brown Queer Masculinities; Exhale: Queer African Erotic Fiction and the AZE Journal: Asexuality Zine.  They are South African and based in Johannesburg.

IG: @iamafreedom

Panelist, Sonia E Barrett (she/her)

Sonia E Barrett (she/her) performs Composites of plants, animals, elements and people to create interventions that presence their objectification and commodification, she also thinks about how to change perceptions of phenomena in “nature” that are a given. The work seeks to create new questions where there was a kind of certainty that has to do with the hegemony of normative western European values. Sonia is of Jamaican German heritage and based in the UK.

IG: @soniaelizabethbarrett, IG @soniaelizabethbarrett, https://www.sebarrett.com

Sonia E Barrett. Title: Sky, Feb 2020.Materials: Hair, thread, wire.

Agnes at OKNOstudio for taking this shot at Villa Romana. www.sebarrett.net. JA DE UK

Mercy Thokozane Minah, Happy & Queer, December 2020, digital painting, , IG @iamafreedom

Ayo Aloba, IG @ayotheartist, digital track cover, https://ayotheartist.bandcamp.com

The Black Creatives Taking Up Space Series is organised by volunteers of Black People in Vienna and Hint.Wien.

We encourage you to support the Black artists and intersectional cultural associations represented here by making a voluntary donation with your free ticket reservation.

Also see individual IG profiles and websites for details.

https://blackpeopleinvienna.com/events, IG @blackinvienna

- www.hint.wien, IG @hint.wien

- Mercy Thokozane Minah (they/their), IG @iamafreedom

- Ayo Aloba (he/his), IG @ayotheartist, www.afroschnitzel.org https://ayotheartist.bandcamp.com

- Sonia E Barrett (she/her), IG @soniaelizabethbarrett, https://www.sebarrett.com