ABOUT THE EDITION

Across the world, artists and cultural practitioners work within economic systems shaped by extraction: the extraction of labour, materials, ideas, cultural knowledge and, too often, communities themselves. While artists frequently respond to these conditions through critique or representation, Àsìkò asks a different question. Can artistic practice itself become a model for creating value differently? Can artists generate economic, cultural and social value while strengthening the places, people and ecologies from which that value emerges?
Grand Bassam and Abidjan offer an extraordinary context in which to explore these questions. A UNESCO World Heritage town whose traditions of wood carving, weaving and textile production have sustained communities across generations sits alongside one of West Africa’s most dynamic cities, where questions of cultural economy, entrepreneurship and creative production are lived every day. Together they provide a living laboratory for investigating how value is created, circulated and sustained.
Àsìkò 2026 invites a Pan-African cohort of artists and curators to engage this context through two interlocking propositions. The first is that art can respond to economic challenges not only through commentary but through the creation of alternative models of value. The second is that local arts and craft traditions are not simply the backdrop for this inquiry; they are among its most important teachers. The knowledge held in the hands of Grand Bassam’s makers—the intelligence of materials, the ethics of care, the rhythms of slow production and the relationships between maker, community and place—forms the curriculum.