Space for Pan-African Research Creation and Knowledge (SPARCK)

SPARCK was a Pan-African initiative of experimental multi-disciplinary residencies, workshops, symposia, exhibitions, publications and performances centred on innovative, ethically driven approaches to urban space. The project involves a number of cities in Africa and beyond: Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Aba, Nigeria; Touba, Senegal; Karachi, Pakistan; Dubai, UAE, and Guangzhou, China. Functioning as a triennial project, which started in 2008, its three-year thematic modules open ambits for exchange between participants and their audiences. The theme for the project is “Net/Works: Trans-Local Cultures in the Making of African Worlds.” This theme is about cities and the art of the deal. Its starting point is an observation: cities in Africa today are crucibles of change, movement, imagination and visions for the future. Despite immense difficulties, not least of which massive infrastructural collapse, urban spaces across the continent are put to use by a wide variety of actors as mechanisms for constructing and renovating economies, cultures and selves. Through complex intersections of migration, commerce and related diasporic practices, they are emerging with increasing strength as platforms for cosmopolitan, highly prolific engagement by Africans with, through and across the globe. SPARCK through the lens of various artistic projects explores, debates, and manifests new ways of understanding this theme.