Chimurenga: Pan African Space Station, Kallio Library, Helsinki

Can a past that the present has not yet caught up with be summoned to haunt the present as an alternative?

In April and May 2016, the Cape Town based group Chimurenga’s installation Chimurenga Library and pop-up radio station Pan African Space Station infiltrated the Kallio Library in Helsinki. Chimurenga, a South African editorial collective and an innovative platform for free ideas and political reflection about Africa, mapped primarily Kallio Library’s music and multimedia's collection to create an alternative route to the library's collection, and a setting for a pop-up live studio and an archive for the future.

The space of Kallio Library was transformed into a pop-up live studio Pan African Space Station for entangling different realities and experiences – with participants and listeners prompted by ideas of utopia and oppression, history and the future, borders, time, art and technology. The Pan African Space Station's live broadcasting program on 13.4.-16.4.2016 included music, conversations, travelogues and performances with local musicians, journalists, writers, curators and filmmakers.

The Helsinki Pan African Space Station was programmed and produced by Chimurenga (Ntone Edjabe, Graeme Arendse and Stacy Hardy), in collaboration with the Helsinki-based collective Third Space (Ahmed Al-Nawas and Christopher Wessels) and the arts journal Rab-Rab (Sezgin Boynik). Guest performers and speakers include: Sonya Lindfors, Sasha Huber, Hassan Blasim, Koko Hubara, Dope Saint Jude, Angel-Ho, Jowan Safadi, Aino Korvensyrjä, Hosni Boudali, the Tricont collective, Ali Akbar Mehta, David Muoz, Aiyekooto and many more.