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B.O.O.K

By  n:u (melissandre varin) 2020 - 2023

image credit: Ayesha Jones

This communal project founded by n:u (melissandre varin) was an invitation to rethink and remake knowledge and culture on our own terms. B.O.O.K (r)evolved through radical sharing, caring and disrupting, by using and developing non-extractive collective mechanisms for re-inventing the everyday as a political space for collective heal- ing and liberation.

The soft infrastructure of B.O.O.K was supported by a self-organised working group composed of 9 Black artists, writers, researchers, facilitators and curators including: Antonio Roberts, Mojere Ajayi-Egunjobi, Jae Tallawah, Samiir Saunders, Sym Mendez, Last Mafuba, Hannah Adereti, Ayesha Jones, and, n:u formerly known as melissandre varin.

They ran artist residencies and commissioned West-Midlands-based artists; produced the B.O.O.K podcast inviting artworkers to share their knowledge; held space for B.O.O.K clubs in the form of collective reading, and dreaming inspired by Black-authored publications for children and adults; organised a B.O.O.K retreat; they also curated film interventions at Vivid Projects, Public House, and Yard Art House - Birmingham (GB) to support filmmakers. Funded by The National Lottery CommunityFund

B.O.OK podcast

image credit: Ayesha Jones, B.O.O.K 2021-2023

Credit Mandip Singh Seehra 1756123077 n:u (melissandre varin)

performance by Maria Muehombo and n:u

45 min

material: ​soil, bells, sparkling wine, butter cloth, shea butter, salt

soft discomfort, salt & shea butter, transition, fugitive mapping, ​soil, bells, speculative tension​, sparkling wine, butter cloth

The Last Place They Thought Of, Kunsthal Mechelen, curated by Sorana Munsya

image credit: Hans Gaston Op de Beeck

doucement

Black people on bicycles (in the sun) (2024)

performance arts

30 minutes

material: black synthetic hair, In Search of Our Mother's Garden by Alice Walker, bin bags

commissioned by: Grand Union, Hettie Judah, Coventry Artspace, Spill Yer Tea

(dis)placing, re-imagining, and harvesting.

Inspired by In Search…

who's gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?

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