Africa Basel Fountain Talks

Artist Natasha Evans sits down with conversation partner Elisa da Costa to unpack a tactile practice that fuses fragmented textiles, acrylic and ink with vessels woven from fabric, copper wire and red oxide. In malachite-toned “soft structures,” Evans probes polarity—soft/hard, seen/unseen—through layered processes that conceal as much as they reveal. Prompted by da Costa, she traces a path from illustration studies in Bournemouth to building an independent studio in Lusaka, balancing commissions

Dans cet échange vif et généreux, l’artiste-chercheuse Najet Dhahbi dialogue avec la curatrice et médiatrice culturelle Essé Dabla-Attikpo autour de la fabrication des récits artistiques, de la médiation et des écosystèmes de l’art entre Afrique et diaspora. On y parle trajectoires, circulation des œuvres, alliances avec les institutions, et de ce qu’implique « tenir l’espace » pour les artistes : financement, communautés, et transmission. Entre identité, mémoire et ancrage local, l’épisode propose

Nigerian sculptor and mixed-media artist Helen Nzete joins Dillon Jerry Mugume for a warm, lounge-style exchange on materiality, healing, and artistic autonomy. Nzete traces her path from studio life in Abuja to immersive works that fuse papier-mâché, plaster, rope and painted glass. She unpacks pieces like “Entangled Cells,” about the hard conversations we have with ourselves, and her series “Year of Knots,” where rope becomes a metaphor for childhood trauma and the urgent work of untying