ABOUT ASMAA JAMA
Asmaa Jama is a Somali multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker based in Bristol, UK. Their work is interested in myth, movement and migration. Asmaa's first film work Before We Disappear (2021), was an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts, followed by The Season of Burning Things (2021), in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic (2021) and Except this time nothing returns from the ashes (2022), commissioned by Spike Island. Their work has also been presented at the 18th and 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with Huda Tayob’s Index of Edges (2023) and the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We (2021), and was the official selection at Blackstar Film Festival, Aesthetica Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform 5 (2022) and the New Cinema Awards at Berwick Film Festival (2024).
Jama’s writing has been commissioned by Jerwood Arts, Hayward Gallery, Arnolfini and Ifa Gallery, Berlin. Their written works have been published in places like The Poetry Review, Nataal and Magma. In theatre, they have written for, and are performing in, Dorothee Munyaneza’s Mailles, and have written for Radouan Mrziga’s Akal and Libya.
Jama was commended for the Brunel African Poetry Prize (2022); and shortlisted for the New Poets Prize (2022) Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing Prize (2021); James Berry Poetry Prize (2021); To Speak Europe in Other Languages prize (2020), and longlisted for National Poetry Competition (2021) and is a Cave Canem Fellow.
Jama is the winner of the Art X Access Prize (2023) and will undertake a residency at G.A.S, Lagos. Jama was also formerly an artist-in-residence at Somerset House Studios, London (2022), Callies, Berlin (2022), School for Sonic Memory, Mucem/Onassis Stegi (2022) and In Between Time Festival, Bristol (2019). www.asmaajama.com
ABOUT GOULED AHMED
Gouled Ahmed (b.1992) is an Addis Ababa-based Somali visual artist, costume designer, and director. Their work explores the themes of memory and belonging through the lens of self-portrait photography, film, and textile art. Gouled’s work deals with the polyphonic erasures that exist in the Horn of Africa, the materiality of dispossession, what it means to tangibly exist outside of hegemonic social imaginaries. Using ceremonial mask making, veils and headpieces they attempt to contend with anti-recognition garments as technologies of resistance. Gouled’s work is interested in the notion of futurity and is heavily aimed at envisioning new and equitable aesthetic and sartorial futures for the Horn of Africa.
Gouled is a recipient of the African Cultural Fund’s inaugural grant (2019) , the Prince Claus Fund’s inaugural Seed Award (2021), the Sharjah Art Foundation's Production Programme Grant (2022) & The Graham Foundations Research Grant (2023) in collaboration with Asmaa Jama.
Gouled’s self-portrait photography work has been exhibited widely at institutions such as the V&A Museum,London (2022), The Brooklyn Museum (2022), the Portland Museum of Art (2023), The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia (2024), Lahti Biennial, Finland (2023) Addis Fine Art Gallery, Addis Ababa Ethiopia (2022) Alliance Ethio-Francaise, Addis Ababa (2021), Northstar Church of the Arts, Durham North Carolina (2019); ZOMA Museum, Addis Ababa (2018) & at the Africa Center, London (2017). Their work will be presented at the 15th Dak’art biennial in May of 2024 in a group show entitled ‘Encounters’ curated by Dr Jareh Das as part of Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock Senegal program.
Their collaborative film practice with poet & filmmaker Asmaa Jama on the film ‘The Season of Burning Things’ commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre has been screened at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and Theater Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We program. It has subsequently been screened at Oscar qualifying Black Star film festival (2022), the Sharjah Film Platform 5 (2022), BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica film festival (2022), the Arab film festival (2022) at the Barbican Center in London & at Art basel Hong Kong (2023). Their latest collaborative film ‘Except this Time Nothing Returns From the Ashes’ commissioned by Spike Island Gallery was exhibited at the gallery along with a multimedia exhibition in the gallery space.