Everyone knows the colourful cotton fabrics we call ‘African wax prints’.
But hardly anyone knows their colonial history. And who would have thought? Switzerland played an important role in spreading these fabrics in West Africa. In the mid-19th century, a Dutch company copied an Indonesian printing technique, and the Basel Mission's trading company created a market for it on the Gold Coast. In talks, films and installations, designers, artists and researchers from Africa and Europe shed light on the colonial entanglement between Switzerland and West Africa over two centuries, focusing on the production and trade of colourful cotton fabrics. WAX ENCOUNTERS is the first part of a multifaceted theatre and fashion project by GROUP50:50.

Avec « The Time For Denial Is Over – Decolonial Ecology », GROUP50:50 invite des artistes, des activistes et des chercheurs qui travaillent pour une écologie décoloniale à échanger autour de leurs pratiques. Comment faire face à la déception et à l'incertitude lorsque les solutions aux problèmes écologiques continuent de reproduire les mêmes inégalités ? Comment soutenir les personnes les plus exposées aux impacts du changement climatique et des désastres écologiques sans tomber dans des approches paternalistes néocoloniales ?

For the Jazz Club of Leipzig, the trio Elia Rediger, Kojack Kossakamvwe and Ruth Kemna offer a concert about current and future economic crimes and the ghosts of the colonial era. In a transcontinental musical dialogue, they revisit works from their past collaborations and present new pieces on stage for the first time.