afila.si presents BLACK EXPERIENCE ISN’T A SPECTACLE, a referential catalogue offering a compilation of poetry, essays and visual art works. 

For its premiere exhibition carrying the same title, afila.si explored the legacy of the voyeuristic gaze in representations of the Black body. It intends to exist as a restorative gesture against the erasure of the Afrocentric perspective in [art] history. 

Combining the spatial elements of a visual art gallery and a reading room, afila.si and Anteism Books invited their visitors to engage with individuals of African descent through the productions of our minds, our nuances and our non-monolithic approaches. This is expressed through a library curated by Venessa Appiah, as well as work by Jesse Katabarwa using image and literary sequencing as a means to generate and excavate living narratives. These works are to be consumed through embodiment with ibiyanε, a collection of sculptural chairs embedded in Sub-Saharan African reflections of physicality by Tania Doumbe Fines and Élodie Dérond.

Carrying titles by :

Chinua Achebe, Maya Angelou, Tanella Boni, Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Kodwo Eshun, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Langston Hughes, Ruth Mayer, Robyn Maynard, V.Y. Mudimbe, Jean-Paul Sartre, Binyavanga Wainana, Derek Walcott

Includes works from: Christian Boakye-Agyeman, Élodie Dérond, Tania Doumbe Fines, Daouda Ka, Jesse Katabarwa, Karl Obakeng, Ouri, Sona Sadio, Tati au Miel

Edited by Venessa Appiah

Design by Jesse Katabarwa

Photo documentation by Maiko Rodrig