Hakeem Adam is a Ghanaian technical artist exploring the power of narrative. He is the founder and creative director of DANDANO, a Pan-African cultural platform for African film and music criticism and documentation. Hakeem has exhibited internationally at Many Studios in Glasgow, Scotland (2018); Okay Space in New York, USA (2018); SPACE10 in Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); Abandon Normal Device (2021); York Mediale (2021), IDFA (2021/22) and the Monheim Triennale (2023). He has participated in the British Council’s ColabNowNow Residency, Maputo (2018), the Cryptic International Artist Residency, Scotland (2019) and the Open Lab Residency at Google Arts and Culture (2023). He has completed a master's in Digital Media from the University of the Arts, Bremen. He is also a recipient of the 2023 ACT Award (Award for Creative Technology), STRP Festival 2023. (Eindhoven, Holland)
Furthermore, Hakeem is the founder and creative director of DANDANO, a digital Pan-African cultural platform for African film and music criticism and documentation. As a cultural organisation, DANDANO is dedicated to appreciating and celebrating African Film and Music through a digital arts magazine dedicated to the distilled love of African art. Content includes reviews of what we consider classic African film and music, as well as worthwhile new projects that show African ingenuity and brilliance.
Hakeem’s multidisciplinary practice involves investigations into digital and physical emergent behaviours amongst units and systems via installations deploying sound as the predominant narrative device that confronts ideas about inequality, the relationship between change and power as well as the politics and freedom. For him, the practice of digital media comprises a reflection of the zeitgeist and its ideas and technologies. This framework is guided by but is not limited to, the use of computers as collaborators in the art process through hardware electronics, algorithms and other digital creative tools. Manifesting mostly as sculpture, his work is an effort to fragment thematic threads into forms that transcend a single visual language but rather embody the multiple ports of entry.
Upcoming
Monheim Triennale, Monheim Am Rhein. (Germany)
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Alt Lounge - Carbon (Accra, Ghana)
Group Exhibitions
2023
Here Us Out, STRP Festival 2023 - (Eindhoven, Holland)
Sun Thinking - Solar Protocol. (New York, USA/Online)
2022
Mutek Forum, Pan-African Market Selection. (Montreal, Canada/Online)
Counter Consideration, STRP Scenario #19 (Eindhoven, Holland)
Ghana Airways, Fak’ugesi Digital Festival. (South Africa)
Ghana Airways, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Holland)
Je suis moi-même le soleil, 31 PROJECT. (Paris, France)
2021
One-Fifth of the Earth's Surface, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Holland)
2020
Fak’ugesi Digital Festival. (South Africa)
One-Fifth of the Earth's Surface, Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival (Liverpool, UK)
An African Poet Cries At The Wind. Savvy Contemporary (Berlin, Germany)
Urban Futures, Gold Host. Nubuke Foundation (Accra, Ghana)
2019
Super Deep Media II. Hochschule für Künste (Bremen, Germany)
Structures That Initiate Change, Circa106. Hochschule für Künste (Bremen, Germany)
Concrete Skeletons. "Selected Photographs." Space 10 (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Digital Africa (Casablanca, Morocco)
2018
Wax Print Festival (Accra, Ghana)
Limbo Accra. "Selected Photographs." (Accra, Ghana)
ColabNowNow: The Future of the Future, Maputo Fast Forward, Botânica (Maputo, Mozambique)
CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival, "Mujahid Series." (Accra, Ghana)
Okay Space, "Ground Games," (New York, USA)
The Grassi Museum, "Made in Africa," (Leipzig, Germany)
The Netherlands Embassy Ghana and Nuku Studio, "Portraits Ghana Photo Prize," (Accra, Ghana)
2017
Many Studios, "Kobi Onyame Versus The Artist," (Glasgow, Scotland)
Accra Theatre Workshop (An African Walks Into An Echo Chamber), "The Rest Is Noise," (Ghana)
Ancestor Project, "In Memoriam: Portraits of the Middle Passage, In Situ/The Nkyinkyim Installation"
Fellowships + Residencies
2021
Refuge World Wide (Berlin, Germany)
2019
Electric South Immersive Media Lab (Cape Town, South Africa)
2018
Cryptic Artist Residency Program (Glasgow and Cove Park, Scotland)
ColabNowNow: The Future of the Future, The British Council & Maputo Fast Forward (Mozambique)
Panel Discussions + Public Speaking
2022
“In Response to the Archive: Researching Post-Colonial Identity through Digital Media. Research Networking Day (RND), CTM Festival, (Berlin, Germany).
Black Mobilities in the Atlantic World, Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR), School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies, University of Central Lancashire, UK
2021
DocLab Live: Liminal Systems International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam ( Holland)
2020
Pigment Synthesis: The Complicated Entanglement of Politics and Aesthetics, The University of the Underground.
2018
Jet Lag, “Colab Now Now”, The British Council and Maputo Fast Forward, Maputo, Mozambique.
Publications + Media
2022
CONVERGENCE no 190, Lien MULTIMÉDIA (Montreal, Canada)
2021
Exploring the Atlantic Ocean through ‘One-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface’. Stir World (India)
2020
Reconfiguration of thought as a communal act, Circa106, Hochschule für Künste, Bremen
2019
"Investigating the Unexpected Connections in our Cultural Heritage through John Akomfrah’s Four
Nocturnes, "Ghana Freedom, Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di
Venezia, Ano Ghana/ Cornerhouse Publications
2018
The young Ghanaian visual artist discusses the themes of mental health and anxiety in his Mujahid
series, Nataal.
Awards + Grants
2022
ACT Award (Award for Creative Technology) , STRP Festival 2023. (Eindhoven, Holland)
Fak’ugesi 2022 Awards for Digital Creativity - 1st Place-Digital Cross-Sector Music & Composition-Composers linked Digital arts
2021
Ghana Airways - Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, Breathing Space Grant
2018
The Netherlands Embassy Ghana and Nuku Studio, 1st Place - Ghana Portraits Photo Prize (Accra,
Ghana)