an experiment.
an interdisciplinary arts residency and research programme, that explored new ways of collaborating virtually and engaging audiences across [geographical] boundaries.
16 Artists. 16 Places. 1 Experience:
"The Long Way Home"
The project brought together 16 artists working from 16 different locations across 3 continents who explored the theme: "The Long Way Home" under the guidance of a powerful artistic directors trio from Botswana, Uganda and India.
The project culminated in a series of stunning hybrid performance installations online and in person at Ugly Duck, London, with editions performed in Bangalore, India (August 2023) and Gaborone, Botswana (August,2023).
bold. experimental. creative.
Born from experiencing profound losses and finding new ways together during the pandemic, this hybrid artist residency/creative journey explored what enables us to connect, collaborate and catalyse new artistic practices virtually - and how to navigate and transform power dynamics inherent in global funding and market logics.
Our first edition in 2021 was so interesting and successful that we decided to continue to evolve this concept whilst also being able to get back together physically on EAST creative train journeys in 2023.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to join our continued research and see the outcomes from the 2023 edition led by a stellar artistic directors trio formed by interdisciplinary artist and performer Kat Kai Kol-Kes, visual artist and writer, Pamela Enyonu and choreographer, facilitator and dancer Diya Naidu.
online. offline. a hybrid.
what is possible?
The global pandemic rendered a physical EAST residency on a train impossible. As such, we started exploring how to create trust, connection and catalyse interdisciplinary collaborations virtually.
Lost + Found combines online with offline experiences in a gamified approach, using accessible low-tech hacks, engaging audiences in ways that go beyond streamed concerts and online galleries.
The journey game was inspired by Anna Cardovillis who is a founding member of the EAST collective.
lost. found. both.
exploring 'the long way home'
Losing and finding involve disorientation and reassurance, much like the feeling of being home. As such, in the 2023 edition we invited the resident artists to explore "The Long Way Home". Whether it's a familiar route - to a taste, sound, time, place, smell, the self, memory or people - or an abandoned path, we understand that slower ways 'home' aren't always romantic or safe. As efficiency often robs us of nuance, through collective introspection and singular way-finding the artists will chart their respective responses to the theme and lead audiences on explorations of their own long ways home.
with. not about.
research perspectives
Often decisions about arts practice and cultural programmes are made without deeply considering the perspectives of artists; creatives’ role in generating new knowledge is undervalued. We work in collaboration with academics to surface insights and recommendations for anyone interested in exploring more equitable ways of supporting arts and culture work globally.
Read about our 2021 research in the TransArtists' journal GameChanger (#4) Station to Station article 'Fostering Reciprocity in Artist Residencies'.
Lost + Found brings together 16 artists from 11 countries working in different creative disciplines.
meet the artists.
visionary. challenging. tenacious.
cutting-edge, contemporary, risk-taking, inspiring and interdisciplinary:
here are the lost+found 2023 artists
mali bora (he/him)
composition. animation
nairobi
Mali Bora is a Music Composer and Animator based in Nairobi, Kenya. With a deep appreciation of both the arts and sciences, he enjoys using the power of technology to tell captivating stories with the aim of igniting our sense of wonder. He is the founder of Vive Visuals, a VFX company and Bora Studios which provides audio services for media productions.
joy yaa kincaid (they/them)
performance art. film
london
joy yaa kincaid is a London based multidisciplinary artist who works with performance art and filmmaking as a medium. They are motivated by abolitionist ways of being and therefore refuse a world where love is not the center. Always channeled with intersectionality in mind their practice aims to reflect what they believe to be grounding truths of the world, complexity, multiplicity to gender and culture and the absurdity of whiteness.
pretty lodenyi (she/her)
choreography. dance
kisumu
Predictor Lodenyi, aka Pretty, is a choreographer, dancer and teacher based in Kisumu, Kenya. She is highly skilled in contemporary dance, western Kenyan traditional dances, Afro-fusion, hip hop and physical theatre. She creates dance pieces that provoke, stimulate and engage audiences.
tristan siodlak (he/him)
multidisciplinary arts
geneva
Tristan Siodlak is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Geneva. He works on animation, video game, digital experience, installation, and live performance projects. His work is multi-platform, translated either on screen or in augmented reality, projections, virtual reality, and on paper. His universes all have a unique visual identity that communicate with each other.
oish (they/theirs)
text. performance. visual arts
goa
oish is an anti-disciplinary writer, performer and transmedia artsworker, mostly based out of Goa, India, they work at the intersection of text, performance and visual arts, layering it with the tools and temporalities of new media, hoping to locate the Self in the midst of these narratives of 'Culture'. They write, perform and produce for stage, centering documentary narratives of queer and womenfolk, and like to use the body as the canvas to explore themes of desire, gender, sexualness and our digital-everydayness.
aldir polymeris (he/him)
video. performance. art mediation
bern
Aldir Polymeris is a video artist, performer, theatremaker and an art mediator. He grew up between Switzerland and Chile. Aldir is interested in processes of translation, the creation of shared spaces of exchange, the creative use of digital means and the inclusion of different forms of knowledge and perspectives.
gisou golshani (she/they)
multidisciplinary art. storytelling
london
Gisou is a London-based, multidisciplinary Iranian artist. Gisou’s ritualistic performances use sound as a medium for multilayered storytelling, and weave together themes around ecology, Persian mythology, sexuality and mental health. They blend fictional tales with real events to reflect on socio-political issues, and seek to offer spaces for introspection and collective liberation.
mmakgosi kgabi (she/they)
writing. performance. facilitation
berlin
Mmakgosi Kgabi is a founding member of Motherbox Organisation for Co-Operation in the Arts. They have a broad portfolio as a dramaturg and voice artist with a keen interest in acting for the camera. They are a DJ, trained actress, performance facilitator, and physical theatre and improvisation performer.
moratiwa molema (she/her)
multimedia. dance. theatre
gaborone
justine wanda (she/her)
writing. satire. comedy
nairobi
Justine is a stand-up comedian, writer, and satirist based in Nairobi. She's proficient in dark and observational humor and even opened for Award- Winning Comedian Hannibal Buress in 2018, only a year into the scene. Justine now hosts her own political satire show - Fake Woke With Justine - offering a humorous and critical commentary on the Kenyan/African political, economic, social, and cultural world.
ade (he/him)
writing. spoken word. expressive arts therapy
juba
Mandela Matur best known as Ade is an Award-winning poet, author, spoken word artist, lyricist and an expressive arts therapist by profession. Ade is one of the pioneers of spoken word poetry in South Sudan, his content rotates around mental health, sociopolitical issues and sensuality.
ingabire gretta (she/her)
poetry. acting. painting
kigali
chuma (he/him)
art. design. entrepreneurship
nairobi
Chuma creates art using technology, innovating at blurring the lines between physical and digital realities; finding the ‘phygitality’ in human existence. His work borders on identity and reimagines the Igbo ‘Uli’ motifs & aesthetic, situating them in contemporary realities whilst leveraging modern technologies to push the envelope and finding new possibilities in his creative practice.
salome egger (she/her)
art. design. performance
bern
Salome is an artist, designer and performer enlacing threads from different disciplines. Textiles and textile techniques are mostly the medium of her practice. In her performative settings and spatial arrangements artistic thinking is bonded to complex theoretical questions.
meloe gennai (they/them)
poetry. pluridisciplinary art
zurich
Meloe is a poet and playwright. Their artistic practice explores embodied narratives through poems, moving images and performance art. Meloe grew up among Black women who were activists, artists, writers and scholars. Having had access to their thoughts and libraries at a very young age, Meloe built their mixed-race trans non-binary self with a strong sense of belonging and responsibility.
arya rothe (she/her)
documentary film
pune
Arya is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Pune, India. She graduated in 2016 from DocNomads Master Course that takes place in Portugal, Hungary and Belgium. After her return to India in 2016 she co-founded NoCut Film Collective with her classmates Cristina Hanes (Romania) and Isabella Rinaldi (Italy). The first film of NoCut is the feature length creative documentary “A Rifle and a Bag” directed and produced by the three co-founders. The collective fosters and produces author-driven documentaries in collaboration with filmmakers from all over the world. We envision filmmaking as collaborative and transcultural.
meet the team.
lost + found is powered by a team of creatives based in 8 different cities
committed. caring. ambitious
We want to thank Maïmouna Jallow who co-created the lost+found concept with Gigi and Poppy in 2020/2021 as well as Jinku, who created our visual identity and contributed to many conversations about the idea as we were wondering how we could translate some of the critical experiences on the EAST train to a virtual hybrid environment. A special thanks also to Tana Kioko, who has been leading the Lost+Found communications from the start.
Emerging from Lost+Found 2021, Pam, Diya and Kat went on a research trip to Switzerland in 2022. They are joining forces and offering all of us their insights and profound artistic expertise as co-artistic directors in 2023, evolving the concept as we go.
pamela aobo enyonu (she/her)
co-artistic direction
visual arts. writing
kampala
Pamela Aobo Enyonu is alumni of lost+found21 and a Kampala-based Ugandan visual artist, writer and recovering advertising professional. Artist and feminist, she focuses on black African [female] experience, using her personal experiences as a Ugandan woman as a point of departure.
diya naidu (she/her)
co-artistic direction
movement. performance. choreography
bangalore
Diya Naidu is alumni of lost+found21 and a choreographer, dancer, performer, facilitator, arts & culture organiser. She is the director of ‘Citizens of Stage Co. Lab.’ As a choreographer her work has traversed into the area of gender and feminism - violence against women, the role caste and class in play in the lack of safety for women, and the somatic implications of patriarchal penetration. She explores intimacy and touch through her work and finds profound correlations between our deepest needs and desires and the challenges we face socially and politically.
kat kai kol-kes (she/her)
co-artistic direction
interdisciplinary art. cultural architecture.
gaborone.
Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile is an alumni of lost+found21, a published author, international award-winning performer, and TED Fellow, always in pursuit of ways to remain radically tender. The unabashedly Queer-identifying sociologist, educator, researcher, and development practitioner from Botswana uses solution-driven thinking, communications methodologies, and art to bridge gaps caused by systemic oppression.
poppy spowage (she/her)
creative production, partnerships, research
brighton
As co-founder and creative producer at EAST, she is leading lost+found partnerships, production as well as research. Poppy co-created the lost + found concept.
Dr Poppy Spowage is also the founder of MeshWorks, a creative producer and researcher with over 12 years’ experience producing contemporary art, performance and practice-based research projects. She is passionate about the relationship between public policy, practice and research, that addresses issues of social injustice.
tana kioko (she/her)
communications
actress. film student
nairobi
Tana Kioko is a multi-disciplinary artist and currently a Film and Directing student. She was one of the lead actors in ‘Tales of the Accidental City, an experimental film about Nairobi, her home city. She is also an experienced project manager, executing both live and online projects and events and is joining us as a social media wizard and communicator. She has also led media projects and is a strong believer in the power of art for self and societal transformation. She leads communications for lost+found.
safia yusuf (she/her)
production assistant
berlin
Safia is joining the collective from Berlin where she works and studies.
deen atger (they/them)
curator. producer. representing Ugly Duck.
london
Deen is a trans non-binary curator and producer based in London. Their work focuses primarily on contemporary and new media art.
Deen works for the art organisation Ugly Duck where they develop artistic programs showcasing and nurturing emerging artists. They contributed to creating the digital concept and the communications strategy, as well as the production for the final hybrid performance.
gigi hepp (she/her)
concept, experience design
multidisciplinary arts
berlin
As co-founder and creative director at EAST, Gigi co-created the lost + found concept and experience design. She is also the co-director of Karneval der Kulturen, Berlin's biggest anti-racist cultural intervention for belonging in public space in the city.
Gigi is an alumni of lost+found21 and works on music and a film exploring our relationship to aging, death, beauty and presence.
ali musoke (he/him)
founder of Film Possible, director & creative producer of Stone Age Pictures, C.E.O of Awalitv.com
kampala
Ali Musoke is a film producer, cinematographer and director, working in both fiction, documentary filmmaking and branded content production.
He has written and directed three short films, produced over 10 short films as well as numerous feature films which have won numerous awards and selected for several festivals around the world. Ali is also a Filmmaking Mentor committed to growing the next generation of talented African Filmmakers.
meet our 2023 edition partners
lost + found 2023 is a creative collaboration between the EAST collective, MeshWorks, Freehand Movement and Ugly Duck.
The residency is hosted in collaboration with our funding partners British Council #SSAArts and Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. EAST is supported by Miller-Zillmer Foundation.
british council
Funding Partner
The British Council #SSAArts grant makes Lost+Found 2023 possible! The British Council has previously also supported editions of EAST train journeys in East Africa.
pro helvetia - the swiss arts council
Funding Partner
Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council provides additional capacity and support to Lost+Found 2023. They also funded our 2022 research trip to Switzerland led by the three co-artistic directors of Lost+Found 2023.
ugly duck
Local Production Partner
Ugly Duck is our collaborating and production partner in London since 2021.
Operating since 2012, Ugly Duck is a London based arts organisation that supports under-represented voices and emerging artists. Their programme enables makers, community groups, professionals and the public to come together around unique cultural experiences and curated events.
MeshWorks
Producing Partner
MeshWorks produces and promotes contemporary art for audiences around the world via artist residency, research and performance platforms.
freehand movement
Local Production Partner
Freehand Studios is our main collaborating and production partner in Nairobi since 2021.
Freehand Movement is an African digital arts and social impact studio that creates compelling, inclusive and culturally relevant content in the form of illustration, graphic novels, animation and impact production services.
