How are we looking at our pasts to better understand our present moment to influence our futures? In a not-so-abstract way, we see our heritage as a key to unlocking a more informed future. This way, we activate our heritage as a pathway to new perspectives of self and form vital solutions to unlearning false narratives of who we are.

By tapping into our heritage, we are collectively offering ourselves an opportunity to redirect our gaze to look within and build new pools of knowledge curated by us through us.

This knowledge bears witness to stories that came before and continues to live through us. In this present intersection of mixed realities, We Are Still Here reflects on what it means to be custodians of heritage. What kind of world emerges when people tap into a new era of creation outside of “validated systems?”

Inspired by the text with the same title - written by Zimbabwean archaeologist Ashton Sinamai - WE ARE STILL HERE, affirms through various artistic mediums, the inherent nature and influence of African knowledge systems embedded within the contemporary art world.

It provides cues and tools for self-excavation already embedded within different communities across the globe – Tools that turn us into anthropological archeologists who need not go far to excavate the value stored within. It’s an acknowledgment that our bodies of knowledge serve as sites of memory that hold heritage.

An interdisciplinary showcase of the intrinsic creativity and esoteric methods of knowledge passed down through generations to acknowledge the simple fact that 'we stand on the shoulders of giants.'

Our artists share a new context to the continent's rich culture, and we get to experience some of the many ways heritage continues to inform and influence their realities.