From February 12th to February 23rd, we, the OKRA Collective, are hosting a laboratory residency in the Zentralwäscherei Zürich. For this we have invited ANTI-MASS Collective from Kampala.

Our focus for this residency is every-day Blackness, rituals and the mundane.

We aim to exchange ideas and skills, host workshops and talks in order to foster connection and community, delving into communal experimental practices.
As we don’t plan a showing at the end of the residency, we allow space for creation without the pressure to produce, allowing space to move, learn and deepen practices freely.

We have structured the two weeks so as to have lots of space for exchange, giving everyone the opportunity to bring their knowledge and skills to the table, to learn from each other and to give and receive feedback on our individual artistic practices. Three OKRA collective members will give inputs on music production and photography, followed by allotted time to try out the learned information firsthand, accompanied by the people who gave the inputs.

In January 2023 we were part of a residency with De Forrest Brown Jr., Jokkoo Collective and Imbricated Real. During ten days we worked towards creating a performance, a sound installation, and a listening piece. It is our intent to build on this body of work and to continue, expand, and deepen our research in relation to the performance, and sound piece in collaboration with the aforementioned parties.

Considering our upcoming collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Basel in May 2024, we hope to gain and deepen our skills in audiovisual practices in order to work collectively and individually on an experience that is as fulfilling for us as it is for the people engaging with it.

This event is not open to the public