Somali Museum: Any-Space-Whatever

Ahmed Abokor is a designer who has dedicated most of his career to the field of visual communication. His work often explores new forms of expression and pushes the limits of what is possible. In addition to his design work, Ahmed is also one-half of Looty, an art collective based in London. Looty is known for its disruptive heist performance art, which challenges the idea of what a traditional museum is and what art can be. Their performances involve elaborate heists that take place within museums and other cultural institutions, turning the traditional art world on its head and forcing viewers to question their assumptions about the nature of art and the institutions that support it. Through his work with Looty and his individual design projects, Ahmed is constantly pushing boundaries and exploring new forms of expression. His art is a celebration of creativity, innovation, and the power of disruption to challenge our assumptions and help us see the world in new and exciting ways. 

Amal Alhaag is an Amsterdam-based independent curator, dj, and researcher who develops ongoing experimental and collaborative research practice, public programs, and projects on global spatial politics, archives, colonialism, counter-culture, oral histories, and popular culture. Her projects and collaborations with people, initiatives, communities and institutions invite, stage, question, and play with “uncomfortable” issues that riddle, rewrite, remix, share, and compose narratives in impermanent settings. 

The Anarchist Citizenship is a collaborative research project that looks into the ways storytelling, visual culture, architecture and  social life (re)shape citizenship in Somaliland and its Diaspora. Initiated by Nadine Stijns and Amal Alhaag, in collaboration with Mustafa Saeed and other artists, thinkers, architects, and activists based in Somalia/Somaliland and its diasporas. The project focuses on the ways in which storytelling, visual culture, architecture, and social life shape citizenship in this region and its diasporas. How can we avoid, refuse, or obscure the colonial gaze and create images that challenge the status quo? What power dynamics are at play when capturing an image, and what does it take to create images that celebrate the multiplicity of identities and experiences that sustain cultures in times of ongoing crises? These sets of questions animate The Anarchist Citizenship as a project that facilitates self-determined stories and collaborative strategies to explore the possibilities of visual narratives and facilitate oral cultures that challenge the normative status quo. 
 

Dr Fuad Abdulaziz Mohamed is a university lecturer and researcher with a rich educational and professional background. He holds a PhD in TV and Film Directing from the University of Essex, an MA in Audiovisual Production from London Guildhall University, and a BA in Print Journalism from Lafole National University. Dr Fuad has taught at various universities, including Ajman University, University of Sharjah, American University in the Emirates, West Virginia State University, and at Qatar University. With a focus on film studies and broadcast journalism, Dr Fuad’s research interests include visual musicality, documentary film production, TV news, and the impact of new multimedia technologies. He has participated in international film festivals with his films, winning awards and publishing scholarly articles. Additionally, he has organised film competitions and workshops for students, and his students’ films have been selected and awarded in film festivals. Dr Fuad is proficient in multiple languages, including Arabic, English, Somali, and Italian. 

Artist, curator, co-director of Numbi and founder of the Somali Museum, Kinsi Abdulleh has worked in East London for thirty years. She is an interdisciplinary artist and co-director of Numbi, a Somali-led, African-centred culture and heritage organisation. Numbi’s work centres on people whose voices are suppressed or ignored, both within their own communities and in wider society. Their latest project is the Somali Museum, which was crowdfunded over the Spring 2020 lockdown. 

Elmi Original is a music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and a budding all-round creative hailing out of London,
UK. Known for flipping Somali samples into up-tempo, high energy dance beats along with making
beats across genres from Afrobeat, Amapiano, Afrohouse, RnB and Hip Hop

Somali Museum UK is a virtual and physical container that tells the many varied stories of Somalia and Somali people in the UK and beyond. The museum radically reimagines what a ‘museum’ is and what it can do. Combining an art gallery, library, archive, museum, dance and music studio as well as cultural centre into one space, Somali Museum UK collapses traditional museum models and their colonial conception – becoming a home where stories of past, present and futures can grow and flourish.