Zaratan AIR | Open Studio

OPEN | 22-23-24-25 April, 2021
SCHEDULE | Thu-Fri, 16:00-20:00 / Sat-Sun, 10:00-12:00
ARTIST TALK | 25 April, 11:00
SUPPORT | República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das Artes
INFO | residencies@zaratan.pt

 

We are pleased to present "The Cookout: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner”, a performative exhibition by The Incredible, Edible, Akynos, Berlin-based New York artist currently in residency at Zaratan AIR.

Our unconscious consumption of Blackness came at the cost of The Hottentot, Henrietta Lacks, Black babies and Nat Turner. The history of colonialism glamorizes the extraction of Black succulence, repressing the influence Black people have on our culinary, artistic and life appetites. From sports, to fashion, to art, the commodification of Blackness consumes our being and repeats on a never ending loop. "The Cookout: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" is the second iteration by Berlin based artist The Incredible, Edible, Akynos and is what influenced her Master's portfolio work at Goddard College, "The Greatest Revenge" which documents the travels across four continents beginning in 2019 on a quest for a new beginning and romancing food and art.

In this exhibition food is incorporated into a sensory experience revealing the bare naked consumption of Black people's bodies. Like a packet of sugar once worth more than gold now costing just a few cents, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner focuses on the fundamental yet devalued role of Black people in all realms of existence.

Audiences will be exposed to an immersive experience which includes an installation of light, sound, images and food created from the Trans Atlantic Black experience prepared by the hands of the artist. On this carefully crafted menu there will be curry chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and Black people.

Attendees are encouraged to RSVP in order to increase their chances of enjoying the edible creations.

[*In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, to access the exhibition the use of sanitary mask is mandatory and entry is subject to maximum capacity, in compliance with hygiene and safety standards.]

 

BIO: THE INCREDIBLE, EDIBLE, AKYNOS, also known as M.F. AKYNOS (MFA), is a multi-dimensional stripper. Influenced by African dance, the Black diaspora, pop music and the wild womxn spirit of Sex Workers, Akynos’ work is about upending the patriarchy and setting her own terms on what it means to be a womxn in a Black body. She is an autodidact of dance fusing hip-hop, jazz, raqs sharqi and booty-popping to shape her routines and performance concepts. Akynos became a regular dance student of West African dance in her late thirties as a disciple of Maguetta Camara at New York City schools Alvin Ailey & Peridance Dance Center. Currently completing an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Art (MFA) at Goddard College, forces the representation and re-evaluation of Sex Workers in society using short films such as Whore Logic (2013) and Hor (2018) and her writings for publications such as: Rosa Lux, Rutgers University Press, Ravishingly and her own blog Black Heaux. With live performances across the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and South America, she has run the gamut in the adult entertainment industry. An immigrant from Jamaica, raised in the concrete jungle, she has been featured in The New York Times (2018) alongside burlesque rockstar Aurora BoobRealis. Her time as a nude model centerfold and cover girl in the 90s hood classic Black Tail Magazine, would prepare her path of becoming the art coordinator for the Desiree Alliance Conference (2014-2016), leading the arts track where she convened the largest street protest of the conference’s existence in New Orleans, LA 2016. She then took those experiences to spearhead her own philanthropic arts organization and in 2018 created “The Black Sex Worker Collective” as a response to the oppressive legislation against sex workers in the United States. Now globally recognized, the organization uses art activism to address issues on labor rights, gender equality and immigration reform intersecting these themes within sex work. Fleeing the instability of her New York life and embarking on a four continent tour in her search for home, Akynos settled in Berlin in 2019.

[ akynos.com ]