Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi aka crazinisT artisT's talk at Feral, 13 September 2024 (Brussels).

In the wake of Kall for Healing, a collective healing ritual, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi aka crazinisT artisT shares the origins of her performance practice. She presents performance as an act of radical resistance in the face of persecution of the LGBTQIA community, which has been threatened for several years in Ghana by a bill that seeks to criminalise LGBT people, their allies, parents and friends.

Through the visualisation of one of her performances – her own crucifixion in the middle of the urban flow – Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi invites us to engage in an embodied and urgent reflection on the need to intervene as an LGBTQIA artist in public space. She assesses the concrete risks and the scale of a struggle that will have to be fought over several generations in order to survive and combat what she identifies as ‘new crusades’. Given the power of her words, we are publishing the audio version here in addition to its publication in Feral Magazine n°3.

Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, aka crazinisT artisT, is a Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist, curator and mentor. She uses performance and installation to investigate gender stereotypes, prejudice, queerness, political and identity conflicts, sexual stigmatisation and their consequences for marginalised people. Through rituals and a gender-fluid persona, she uses her own body as a tool for reflection to address issues such as disenfranchisement, injustice, violence, objectification, racism, and systemic indoctrination.

To go further:

• Kall for Healing during Feral 2024
• Healing and Collective action panel during Feral 2024
• Feral Magazine n°3