FAKA[ZA]

The Johannesburg collective FAKA was established by Fela Gucci and Desire Marea. It has come to represent more than the “performance art duo” descriptor that has defined it since its inception in 2015 – at this point, it embodies an outright cultural movement. 

FAKA explores a combination of mediums, ranging from sound to live performance, literature, video and photography. Via this eclectic aesthetic, they express ideas related to their experience as black queer bodies navigating the cis-heterotopia of post-colonial Africa. The duo debuted at the BubblegumClubbb Nights held at Johannesburg's Hazard Gallery in 2015, where they presented #Wait Lorraine: A Wemmer Pan-African Introduction to Siyakaka Feminism. That same year, they released their popular ode to Brenda Fassie, a video piece titled From A Distance. The following year (2016) was defined by the duo’s release of the Bottoms Revenge EP, a collection of ancestral gqom-gospel sounds, as well as a much-talked-about live installation of The Factory at Stevenson Gallery’s SEX show. They run a celebrated club night called Cunty Power, and this past year appeared in i-D's documentary series Out of This World with Mykki Blanco. 

Their hybridised mode of practice and challenging subject matter as artists has led them to various international festivals, such as the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2016); Unsound Festival Poland (2016); FLOW Festival (2017), and Digging the Global South (2017), amongst many others. In October 2017, FAKA released  Amaqhawe, their much-anticipated sophomore EP. It is a three-track offering that “explores the intricacies of love and romance within the black queer experience, with songs touching on everything from self-love, unrequited love, childhood love and transactional love.”

CTM 2018 Phase Out I

SchwuZ I, Sun 04.02.2018, 22:00

Angel, Klitclique, Born in Flamez, FAKA, Flava D, Opium Hum