program

Mauricio Fleury brings cosmic grooves, tropical rhythms and mystical funk.

Joining introspection and imagination in one thread.

We listen to the album together in silence.

The session begins on time. Arriving a bit late? No worries, just come in quietly to preserve the listening atmosphere. We can’t wait to see you!

Please note: we do not take reservations.

Borga Highlife: Beyond the Default

For this session of our discursive program, curator and host Anna Fasolato invites fellow curator Abraham Tettey for a journey through life in the diaspora and the sounds of Borga Highlife.

Emerging within the Ghanaian diaspora living in Germany in the early 1980s, particularly in Hamburg and Berlin, Borga Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that fuses traditional Ghanaian highlife with Western funk, disco and synth-pop.

The term Borga is said to derive either from the German word Bürger -“citizen” – or from Hamburg, where one of the largest Ghanaian communities outside Ghana was established. It came to refer to Ghanaians living abroad and became associated with the music they produced, as well as with the image of an affluent lifestyle. Hamburg thus became an important centre in this history of migration.

Starting from Abraham’s childhood memories and the songs played by his father on Christmas Eve, we will listen to some Borga Highlife hits and explore their connection to the political and social context of Ghana from the 1970s to the present. The listening session intertwines the intimacy of personal stories with music to explore experiences connected to migration, family and the ideas and narratives of “success” abroad.

Join us for this special conversation.

Abraham Tettey is an artist-curator working between Ghana and Germany. His practice follows how infrastructures, materials and technologies of modernity continue to organise the contemporary, opening spaces for encounter and alternative forms of relation.

Anna Fasolato is a curator and cultural manager based in Berlin. She holds space at SAVVY Contemporary and Salon am Moritzplatz, and conspires within the research collective REINCANTAMENTO.

Photo: George Darko and the Bus Stop Band

We listen to the album together in silence.

The session begins on time. Arriving a bit late? No worries, just come in quietly to preserve the listening atmosphere. We can’t wait to see you!

Please note: we do not take reservations.

maxiu’s set is an effervescent dreamscape of billowing textures.

Amanita‘s set moves between trip-hop, spiritual jazz, exotica and easy listening.

Gabriel brings a soulful mix of jazz, funk and post-disco.

We listen to the album together in silence.

The session begins on time. Arriving a bit late? No worries, just come in quietly to preserve the listening atmosphere. We can’t wait to see you!

Please note: we do not take reservations.

We listen to the album together in silence.

The session begins on time. Arriving a bit late? No worries, just come in quietly to preserve the listening atmosphere. We can’t wait to see you!

Please note: we do not take reservations.