RADICAL CREATIVES IN URBANISM:
Paul Goodwin in conversation with Dana Whabira

In her talk, Dana Whabira will focus on the mediation of public space through curatorial practice and artistic intervention in Harare. Having established Njelele Art Station there, Whabira will reflect on Njelele’s approach as an urban laboratory for critical dialogue and creative practices that are intended to shift perspectives and transcend boundaries embedded in architecture, postcolonial cartographies or socio-economic disparities in the remaking of the urban space and its psyche.

Following the talk will be a conversation with curator, researcher and urban theorist Paul Goodwin. Discussed will be his practice which explores the creative potential of cities and exhibitions in tandem, as sites for aesthetic, socio-cultural and political intervention. The talk will explore multidisciplinary projects, alternative visions and new urban epistemologies.

Paul Goodwin is a curator, researcher, and urban theorist based in London. His curatorial and research interests span the fields of contemporary art, migration, urbanism and critical curation with a particular focus on black and diaspora artists and visual cultures. As a curator at Tate Britain from 2008 to 2012 he directed the Cross Cultural Programme that explored questions of migration and globalisation in contemporary British art. As a lecturer he has held various teaching and research positions in the fields of visual arts, transnationalism and urban theory. Since 2014 he has been a visiting critic and lecturer for the Art in the Public Sphere Masters programme at the Ecole cantonale d’art du Valais (ECAV) in Sierre, Switzerland. Goodwin is Professor of Transnational Curating, UAL Chair of Black Art and Design Studies and Director of the Research Centre for Transnational Art Identity and Nation (TrAIN) at the University of the Arts London.

Dana Whabira is a curator and cultural facilitator based in Harare/Zimbabwe. She is a trained architect and studied art and design at Central Saint Martin’s College in London. In 2013, she founded Njelele Art Station, an urban laboratory located in downtown Harare that focuses on contemporary, experimental and public art practice. Njelele is a meeting place for critical dialogue where ideas are generated and resonate out into the city through projects that provoke discussion and engage with the general public. Njelele Art Station recently participated in the Symposium D’Art Mali by Médina Mediatheque, part of the Rencontres de Bamako 2015 OFF programme.

Dana Whabira is the current grant-holder of KfW Stiftung’s program Curators in Residence: Curating Connections in collaboration with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. The program provides emerging curators from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia with the opportunity to spend several months in Berlin. Besides encouraging research and critical reflection, it facilitates encounters between those working in arts and culture. The residency program seeks to stimulate intercultural dialogue in curatorial practice. www.kfw-stiftung.de/content/en/arts/curators-in-residence/dana-whabira