AGORA: A Dance of Umbrella Forests

2026PVC, fabric, carbon-steel pipes, epoxy paintOverall dimensions: 60 × 72 × 7 metres

blaxTARLINES is an open-source art collective and pedagogical network that explores collaborative models of art-making, learning, and collective self-determination. AGORA: A Dance of Umbrella Forests (2026) borrows its title from Wole Soyinka’s landmark 1960 play A Dance of the Forests and reimagines the Ghanaian royal umbrella (kyiniyɛ)—traditionally a symbol of kingship—as contemporary civic architecture. Reassembling the umbrellas as a shared civic space, the installation brings Ghanaian and Emirati traditions of leadership into dialogue. Inspired by the historical routes of the Underground Railroad, a nineteenth-century network of safe houses used by freedom-seekers escaping enslavement in the American South, the umbrella clusters evoke movement, solidarity, and collective self-determination, creating portable civic spaces for gathering, exchange, and self-governance.

Artist's Biography

blaxTARLINES

Kumasi, Ghana

blaxTARLINES is an open-source art collective, pedagogical experiment, and art-labour movement hosted by the Department of Painting and Sculpture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. Bringing together artists, curators, teachers, technicians, students, and cultural workers, the collective explores shared models of art-making, learning, and self-determination. The collective co-develops curricula, experimental hubs, residencies, and public-access spaces. Through them, blaxTARLINES articulates solidarity, post-Western pedagogy, and the relationship between local contexts and global exchange as outlets through which to practice universal politics. The coalition’s work has been presented in major exhibitions including the 61st Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys (2026); Fragments of a World After Its Own Image at APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia (2025); Silent Invasions: The Art of Material Hacking, Amasaka Gallery, Masaka (2023–2024); and documenta 15, Kassel (2022).

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