Okpokwasili collaborated with her partner Peter Born and a number of Berlin-based artists to produce a work that adopts the tactics of a form of protest traditionally practiced by women in eastern Nigeria, metaphorically called “sitting on a man’s head.” Through a collective invasion of seats of power, it was a strategy used to speak back, air grievances, and effect change. Okpokwasili and her collaborators present an unfolding score that can be activated by all who enter the proffered space. Both score and embodied space work in the service of resistance and self-preservation, so we can “come together, find each other, and call out.

Nomaduma Rosa Masilela

Activated at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, June to September 2018
Project Design Collaborator Peter Born
Courtesy Okwui Okpokwasili
Commissioned and produced by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Activated BY Adrian Blount, Alexander Carillo, Andre Neely, Birte Opitz, Danilo Andrés, Dessa Ganda, Diana Thielen, Elvina Pinto, Jenny Ocampo, Josephine Brinkmann, Josephine Findeisen, Khadidiatou Bangoura, Kyle Patrick, Lena Bagutti, Malika Alaoui, Manuel Meza, Martha Hincapié Charry, Maya Gomez, Michelle Moura, Natascha Roy, Noa Mamrud, Rebecca Korang, Riako Napitupulu, Risa Kojima, Sarah Bouars, Wieland Möller, Yaron Maim, Yin Cheng, Yuri Shimaoka, Zwoisy Mears Clarke