Nick Coutsier is a contemporary dancer. He studied at the Royal Artesis Plantijn Conservatory in Antwerp. In 2019, he took part in Beyoncé's Spirit video and was involved in her Black is King film. He currently collaborates with the artist Yseult and for various fashion houses as a movement director. He works regularly with the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and his company Eastman. Coutsier is presently on tour with Cherkaoui's new piece VLAEMSCH (CHEZ MOI), in collaboration with artist Hans op de Beeck and designer Jan Jan Van Essche.
Véronique Clette-Gakuba is a sociology researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)’s METICES research centre. Her work focuses on issues of coloniality, negrophobia, and processes of Black resistance at the intersection of artistic production, political activism, and community research. Her doctoral thesis (ULB) is entitled "Épreuves de colonialité dans l'art et la culture. Faire exister un monde noir à Bruxelles" [“Evidencing coloniality in art and culture. Making a Black world exist in Brussels”]. Véronique Clette-Gakuba is a member of Présences Noires, a collective involved in the struggle against racism.
Sofia Dati is the visual and audiovisual arts curator at Beursschouwburg in Brussels, where she has curated exhibitions by Ève Gabriel Chabanon, Sina Hensel, and the Black(s) to the Future collective, alongside several film programmes. She was part of the WIELS, Brussels curatorial team in 2019-2021. Dati studied literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, cultural sciences at KU Leuven and curatorial studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. She has written for magazines such as Po&Sie, Arshake and Conceptual Fine Arts.
Magali Elali is a Belgian curator and activist whose work is dedicated to amplifying the voices of under-represented artists. She holds a master's degree in art history and founded The Constant Now in 2021, a network and experimental platform that supports racialised artists. Elali's curatorial approach defies traditional exhibition formats and nurtures partnerships with institutions such as Hof van Busleyden and S.M.A.K. Beweegt. As part of The Constant Now's POC POC programme, Elali supports emerging artists by creating inclusive spaces in which to develop and present their work.
Hamedine Kane is an artist who explores the notions of exile, wandering, heritage, and the awareness that comes from the post-independence political experiences of certain African countries, as well as the notions of Afro-nostalgia and Afro-utopia. He co-initiated the School of Mutants collaborative platform in Dakar in 2018. His work has been exhibited at biennials, museums, festivals, and fairs (Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, 12th Berlin Biennial, 14th Dakar Biennial). He is a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome for 2023-2024.
Valérie Kanza has been conducting research for over 20 years on the pivotal period spanning the 1940s to the 1960s in international relations and the processes that led to decolonisation. Through writing and multimedia, she pursues the task of remembrance in relation to the issues of the postcolonial worldview. Granddaughter of Daniel Kanza (ABAKO) and niece of Thomas Kanza, she has studied the furtivity of information exchange and mutual aid networks during the colonial era. Specifically, she has endeavoured to reconstruct the forgotten memory of the International Centre, which was set up by Présence Africaine in Brussels (1958-1960).
Nkisi is a London-based artist working in the fields of visual art and music. She co-founded NON Worldwide, a label and network that uses the web to combat the invisibilisation of Black and African cultures. She produces intense and powerful sound creations and installations influenced by ancient Kongo rhythms, noise rhythms, and experimental improvisation. She recently launched the label INITIATION and the research platform The Secret Institute, exploring the secrets and mysteries of vibratory rhythms, ritual as a socio-political tool, invisible sonic gestures, and strategies of trance.
Laura Nsengiyumva is an artivist, architect, and researcher. Through her interdisciplinary practice, Nsengiyumva explores themes such as the diasporic experience, hidden histories, North-South relations, and empathy. Her artivist actions, such as PeoPL and Queen Nikkolah, are part of her research project "Shaping the presence of the African diaspora in Belgium". Nsengiyumva is affiliated to the KASK Conservatory / HOGENT and Howest as an artistic researcher. She won first prize at the Kunstsalon in Ghent in 2011, and second prize at the Dakar Biennial in 2012.
Maria Muehombo aka M I M I is a Brussels-based DJ and transdisciplinary artist. Her work is driven by a constant conversation with nature, drawing inspiration from the boundaries between natural worlds and the Anthropocene. Incorporating her Afro-European cultural heritage alongside shamanic practices in a variety of ways, she blends genres, palettes, and textures to create a unique and avant-garde sound. She has performed internationally on renowned platforms such as NTS Radio, Red Light Radio, Boiler Room, Electrafrik (SEN), Nyege Nyege (UG), Eurosonic (NL), and more.
Kenny Mala Ngombe is an artist who explores the representation and perception of the human body through painting, drawing, and sculpture, as well as video, animation, and sound creation. His practice examines the way in which the fictitious nature of otherness infiltrates our reality and our society. Inspired by the Afro-surrealist Manifesto, Mala Ngombe seeks to disentangle the invisible world from the visible world in which we operate, in order to rethink our forms and bodies. In 2022, he was in residence at MINO in Antwerp. He collaborated with Ancienne Belgique for Black History Month in 2021 and has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Flanders and Brussels. He is co-founder of Customs & Borders, an artists' collective active from 2021 to 2023, which sought to widen access to Afro-centric contemporary art.
Rachael Moore is an LGBTQIA+ activist, facilitator, and diversity and inclusion expert based in Brussels. In 2018, she co-founded the Rainbow Nation association, which works to promote the visibility and artistic, cultural and civic expression of racialised LGBTQIA+ people. She currently sits on the Bisexual Representatives Steering Committee of the International Lesbian and Gay Association-Europe.
