#maputofastforward

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Connecting Creative Communities: Bringing together digital artists from Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.

In October 2018, nine selected digital artists met in Maputo, Mozambique.

This was part of ColabNowNow, a partnership between Maputo Fast Forward & British Council, connecting the creative communities of Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.

The project inspired collaboration between artists from East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, and the UK.

Over ten days, the nine artists brought their work - representing the best in African and UK digital practice today - to Maputo where they collaborated to create the projects.

Click here to see the exhibition

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#ColabNowNow in the spotlight

To highlight the incredible works made during last year’s #ColabNowNow residency, we’ve put the spotlight on the 9 participants on our Instagram page this week. 

The 9 digital creatives from sub-Saharan Africa and the UK spent a week collaborating with each other at Maputo Fast Forward in October 2018.

Check out our feed to find out more 

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#ColabNowNow 2018 - Creatives Announced

Entries for this year’s #ColabNowNow residency at Maputo Fast Forward were brilliant, imaginative and creative. Thank you to everyone who applied the decision was not easy!  

Congratulations to Valerie Amani (Tanzania), Andrew Munuwa (Tanzania), Hakeem Adam (Ghana), Afopefoluwa Ojo (Nigeria), Maxwell Mutanda (Zimbabwe), Nikiwe Dlova (South Africa), Nilton Mungamba (Mozambique), Will Hurt (UK) and Tanyaradzwa Chitunhu (UK). 

See you in Maputo!

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#Opportunities - 3 days until #ColabNowNow open call closes

OpenCall: Applications are now open for #ColabNowNow, British Council #SouthernAfricaArts in partnership with Maputo Fast Forward. Looking for digital artists and storytellers from East + West + Southern Africa & the UK to take part in Maputo in October.

Apply here 

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#ColabNowNow at Maputo Fast Forward 2018

British Council #SouthernAfricaArts invites young digital creatives to take part in the second edition of ColabNowNow, hosted with Maputo Fast Forward in Mozambique. ColabNowNow will select 4 digital storytellers and 4 digital artists from East, West and Southern Africa and the UK. Working with the guidance of two digital facilitators, the creatives will create work for a physical and digital exhibition at the festival. The ColabNowNow facilitators will be mentored by interactive digital artist, senior lecturer and Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival director, Dr. Tegan Bristow.

We’re looking for visual/graphic artists, architects, technical artists, programmers/coders, music/sound artists, performers and animators, writers, photographers, filmmakers, videographers, bloggers and vloggers!

Find out more

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Meet the ColabNowNow Creatives

While the Maputo Fast Forward International Conference is in full swing, preparations are also underway to receive this year’s ColabNowNow creatives on 20 October. We can’t wait to get together with this talented and dynamic group. 

East Africa 

Valerie Amani is a Dar es Salaam born and based fashion designer, makeup artist and graphic designer. She is the founder and creative director of Kahvarah, a boutique fashion label that focuses on the African narrative; the co-founder of  R.R Creative Agency, a creative consultancy which has placed her behind the visual language of various brands in Tanzania; as well as the visual art program manager at Nafasi Art Space where she curates exhibitions and workshops. Valerie combines her digital art with her love of writing to tackle issues on neo-colonialism, environmental awareness and feminism.

Andrew Munuwa is a Tanzanian born photographer, freelance graphic designer and graffiti writer. His work is inspired by everyday moments in contemporary urban African life. Munuwa’s work has been featured at various exhibitions in and outside Tanzania, such as the University of Dar es Salaam Talent Fever Exhibition and One word for Africa A photography exhibition by PICHASTOCK. His recent project, Mtaani, Maskani  celebrates and commemorates the stillness of public ceremonies amidst a hectic bustling Dar-es-Salaam city through photography and poetry performance.

West Africa 

Hakeem Adam is a Ghanaian artist-in-learning and instinctive creative exploring the power of narrative as a tool for deconstructing society through various mediums. He is the founder and creative director of DANDANO, a Pan-African cultural platform for African film and music criticism. His work is fixated on the fabrics of contemporary Ghanaian society, and is exploring ways to unravel the threads that bind through storytelling. He is also a freelance writer documenting and archiving African culture.

Afopefoluwa Ojo is a Lagos-based writer and software engineer who experiments with generative art. She is co-founder of Arts and Africa, and co-runs a book club called the Barely Literate. She recently exhibited her digital poetry which she creates with programming languages at the 'Mind at work exhibition' which held at the African Artists' foundation and is currently working on her debut novel and short story collection. Her work has been published in the journals Overland, Experimental Literature Africa vs Latin America Vol. 1, Intense Art Magazine, and others.

Southern Africa 

Maxwell Mutanda is a pluridisciplinary artist and architect from Harare, Zimbabwe. Within his architectural practice, Mutanda takes a social focus on design. He is a cofounder of the design firm Studio [D] Tale which explores how design and architecture can resolve social and environmental problems. As an artist, Mutanda's deploy meticulously detailed fine lines collages. Mutanda received his BS in Architecture in 2005 and his MA in Architecture in 2008 from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Studio [D] Tale has exhibited at institutions worldwide and was included in the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the London Design Festival, 2015.

Nikiwe Dlova is an artist and storyteller from Soweto, South Africa, who loves expressing herself through hair, fashion, music and art. She studied Clothing Management at the University of Johannesburg. Whilst working at Edcon as an Assistant Buyer, she started a blog called ownURcrown which is about creative hair expression. The blog is a platform for people who are bold and creative with their hairstyle choices to share stories about this form of expression. She is currently managing the brand for ownURcrown, which has expanded to hair art exhibitions and pop up salons. Nikiwe also creates headpieces for productions ie, magazines, music videos, films. She is all about telling stories through hair.

United Kingdom 

Will Hurt is a UK-based artist who uses computers to create brightly coloured, playful, digital interactives which cater to people of all ages and abilities and respond to the geometry of the physical sites they are installed in, abstracting and re-presenting local architecture and landscape. These site-specific interactives bring people together, forging connections and affording them a moment to play, leaving them with lasting memories of novel playful experiences and a new appreciation of their locality. Will’s work has been exhibited around the world due to its stand-out aesthetic, technical resilience and engaging immediacy.

Tanyaradzwa Chitunhu is a Zimbabwean born performance poet based in the UK. She recently released a debut collection of spoken word poetry – a book titled “On Praise & Protest” which celebrates unheard African stories and confronts their marginalisation. Her work is influenced by African storytelling, Christian preaching, hip hop & spoken word. She aims to celebrate African identities through her poetry with passionate words and a powerful delivery. She has been on various stages including, as a selected guest poet, at the Bloom Arts Festival London. She has also been featured on British radio stations Newstyle radio & Brum radio. Tanyaradzwa headlined and led the poetry show and workshop for a summer festival called Catalyst.

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#ColabNowNow - 1 day left!

British Council #SouthernAfricaArts is looking for 4 digital storytellers and 4 artists working in digital to partake in #ColabNowNow at Maputo Fast Forward in October. The clock is ticking fast! Applications close today.

Apply Now!

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Apply for ColabNowNow 4 days to go!

Applications for ColabNowNow are still open! British Council Southern Africa Arts in partnership with Maputo Fast Forward is looking for 4 digital artists & 4 digital storytellers from East + West + Southern Africa & UK! 4 days to go! Apply Now!

Read more 

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#Opportunities - 5 days to apply for ColabNowNow

British Council #SouthernAfricaArts invites young digital creatives to take part in the second edition of ColabNowNow hosted with Maputo Fast Forward in Mozambique. ColabNowNow will select 4 digital storytellers and 4 digital artists from East, West and Southern Africa and the UK. Working with the guidance of two digital facilitators, the creatives will create work for a physical and digital exhibition at the festival. There are 5 days to go till the closing date. Apply now!

Find out more and apply here