heimA(R)Ten — Nana Nana
Group exhibition with Isaiah Lopaz, Bona Ngoumou, Nando Nkrumah, Dorcas Nsiama. Curated by Cucuteni
Theodor-Wonja-Michael-Bibliothek, Quartier am Hafen, Cologne
heimA(R)Ten was part of heimaten, a project that reimagines belonging as something built collectively rather than simply inherited — a stance rooted in activism, anti-fascism, decolonization, and the defense of shared space. Its title layers the German Heimat (homeland), Arten (kinds, species), and AR (augmented reality): home understood not as a fixed place but as plural, multi-layered, and continually remade by the many who shape it. The wider heimaten Festival für die plurale Demokratie brought together more than thirty cultural institutions and civil-society initiatives across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from September to December 2025, insisting that multiplicity is not a threat to democracy but a reservoir of its strength.
Nana Nana, 2025 — Nando Nkrumah
In his multidimensional series Nana Nana, Nando Nkrumah turns to the lives of his grandmother and great-grandmother in Acherensua, his father's home village in Ghana. When his grandmother, Nana Afrah, died young giving birth to his aunt, his great-grandmother, Nana Nyantakyiwaa, took on the raising of her six grandchildren. Against tragedy and considerable hardship, she held the family together — sustained by a daily spiritual practice, by her morning prayers, and by an unshakeable belief in a better future.
The series returns to this pivotal moment in the family's history and asks how spiritual practice and mental focus can turn vision into reality — opening up spaces and giving rise to structures that endure. The paintings invite viewers on a journey through the collective memory of historical events, while the sculptural works reflect on faith and imagination as essential forces of spirituality, of social movements, and of contemporary activism.
