For the Expanding Academy, a temporary classroom and laboratory will be set up in the Royal Academy of Antwerpen, where soil/land can be explored and investigated as a site of economic, social and ecological contestation and conflict. The activities of the Antwerp leraning site will be a site-specific extension and further development of the workshop conceived and realised during Otobong Nkanga’s residency and exhibition project There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground at Gropius Bau in Berlin along 2019/2020 with the architect Nuno Vasconcelos.
The Expanding Academy temporary classroom and laboratory is developed in reference to the Carved to Flow project initiated by Otobong Nkanga during documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel. Carved to Flow was conceived as a support structure actively embedded in the social sphere. It is an intricate, expansive and continually transforming work that seeks to create awareness around the networked geographies, economic histories and affective entanglements that inform the creation of everyday products. The work consists of performance, installation, enterprise and charitable work. At documenta 14 in Athens where it was first presented, it took the form of a soapmaking laboratory installation. In Kassel, it transformed into a sculptural installation composed of a soap I made called O8 Black Stone that was disseminated and sold through performances. The ‘laboratory’ and ‘warehouse’ phases, as these were called, sought to provide audiences with the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the different oils that make up the soap’s primary ingredients, and at the same time reflect on the economic transactions through which these materials are placed in circulation. Currently, in its third phase titled ‘germination’, the work has been redirecting its profits and seeks to support the activities of two spaces it has set up in Athens and Nigeria which will serve as bases for research and exchange on material entanglements structured around exhibitions, workshops, and events.
to know more about the project explore carvedtoflow.com
SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 12, 2021 SITE INVESTIGATIONS by Nuno Vasconcelos
Nuno Vasconcelos joined artist Otobong Nkanga in Antwerp for a first site visit to initiate the CARVED TO FLOW temporary lab on soil, earth, and land in Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. While giving form to the lab, Nuno and Otobong are meeting several experts and practitioners dealing with urgent questions related to soil and earth. Those encounters are inspiring a public program for students, artists, environmentalists, through which urgent questions around soil, earth, and land can be explored and investigated as a site of economic, social, and ecological contestation and conflict.
