KUKILY transnational afrofeminist arts collective
At the 32nd Annual National Women’s Convening in Chaco, Argentina (October 2017); our second time at this event.
Who are we
Kukily was born during the 31st Annual National Women’s Convening (Argentina)—an independent political forum bringing together 60,000+ women/trans/non-binary folks— in 2016, where members Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Jasmin Sánchez, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, and Lina Lasso met for the first time. This 31st edition was also the first time the “Afrodescendent Women” workshop existed; it was no coincidence that we all met here.
Our different nationalities and diverse personal histories combine to create a common vision around topics such afrodescendent identity, the place of afrodescendent women in socitiety, and the necessity to express ourselves through art.
We are based in Argentina, Brasil, and Germany, working with a truly global perspective of the African Diaspora.
What we do
The collective creates interdisciplinary work through the mediums of installation, performance, curation, community-engaged art, and video/short film.
We combine our individual and shared experience in theater, film, performance art, dance, audiovisual work, music, community-organizing and scholarship. We use the intersection of these languages to investigate new aesthetics that fully represent us.
We are currently working “locally” in the three countries we reside in, as well as transnationally. Feel free to reach out at colectivokukily@gmail.com. Kukily is officially registered as a Civil Association (Associación Civil/NGO) in Argentina and can received grants and partnerships through this entity.
Artist residency at PACT Zollverein in Essen, Germany (© Photo: Dirk Rose / PACT Zollverein)
Current work
XTRÆNCESTRAL is a multidisciplinary installation that that proposes an afrofuture built from Indigenous, ancestral knowledge. For this project our afrofuture comes in the form of a spaceship that travels to the present commanded by XTRÆNCESTORS--archetypal ancestral entities of the future. These entities give us glimpses of what the future holds and invite us to take part in constructing it. The work centers local perspectives by inviting audiences to activate the installation constantly.
It was commissioned by the Lagos Biennial and premiered there in March 2024 with support from the We Are Family Foundation and Puffin Foundation.
Residency support from PACT Zollverein (Germany), Casa Sofia (Argentina), and Mariana Pacheco & Federico Bejerano (Argentina).
Idea & Creation: Kukily Collective
Performers: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Jasmin Sánchez, Julia Cohen Riberio, Lina Lasso
Installation Design & Live DJ: Florencia Gomes
Music: NANCLA
Photos: Chioke Ianson
Exhibitions / Performances:
Lagos Biennial, Nigeria Feb 2024 (installation/performance)
Group Exhibition “Memories y Resistencia”, Centro Queretano de la Imagen, Mexico Sept 2024 (audiovisual)
Negra, negra, negra soy performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2018 (Photo by Malu Campello)
Celebrate their existence performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2022
Past work
In 2018 Kukily developed a performative installation entitled *Negra, negra, negra soy (Black, black, I am black) which premiered at the Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti (ARG) in November 2018. This rendition featured 20 original texts performed by afrodescendent women collaborators, a unique installation in the space, and a series of community-bonding activities.
We’ve created an oasis—a sort of non-place—that exists to be inhabited by the experiences of Afrodescendent women. Afrodescendent women joining together and occupying the space with their political and artistic vision. We pay homage to Afroperuvian poet, Victoria Santa Cruz, and yell out together “negra, negra, negra soy” (Black, Black, I am Black).
*title derived from the work of Afro-Perivuan poet, Victoria Santa Cruz
We also have a performance piece entitled Bustos, which we performed at the Encuentro de Performance y Género (ARG/’17), Maratón de Performance (ARG/’18), Maratón LODO (ARG/’18), and a self-produced site-specific series of 4 performances during October 2018.
We’ve given talks in universities, art spaces and radio shows on topics such as working in collective, Black women in film, Contemporary practices of Black women artists in Buenos Aires. In July 2018, we facilitated a group artistic activity for the event “AFRONTA - Encounter for Women of the Diaspora”.