The 14th edition of the Chale Wote Street Art Festival opened in Accra on Monday, August 19, 2024.
The event opened silently through the Osu township, with participants clad in all-white attires.
There was a declaration by the team in the Christiansborg castle and the opening of the Shika Shika Art Fair in the Garden.
Other activities during the first day of the Chale Wote Street Art Festival were a royal music performance by the Osu Klottey School of African Music, a Dagara Music Centre performance, a Nyonmo Y3 Jen Cultural Group dance performance, film screening and conversations.
The 2024 edition of the festival is slated for August 19-25 at the Black Star Square.
Themed ‘And Now An End To The Empire Of Horrors,’ draws inspiration from some of Africa’s deepest history that lies in the Gulf of Guinea. Chale Wote seeks to artistically focus on the tales of the fantastic and mortal gods from the Gulf of Guinea, which can be understood as allegories that illustrate the social conditions created by genocidal squatter colonialism.
Chale Wote 2024 explores the history of the place through its origins and an examination of it concerning its death and the current rebirth of its sacred sciences, long forgotten and buried with the giants. The event will curate a multiplicity of counterhegemonic narratives about this rebirth in their most spectacular form through art and entertainment.
As strong advocates of art education, the organisers are also interested in works that can be tailored to include salons and knowledge-sharing labs with children and/or youth during the festival period.
The one-week-long festival will be held from Monday, August 19, to Sunday, August 25, 2024. Therefore, selected artists will be expected to release the works from August 10 to 18, 2024, and have them ready for display from the beginning to the climax of the festival.
For the second time, The Multimedia Group is the official media partner for the festival.
Through its experienced reporters, the media company will give viewers, listeners and readers of its platforms, comprehensive coverage of everything that happens throughout the period.
The festival will be transmitted on Hitz FM, and Joy Prime, and have reports published on myjoyonline.com. There will be special features on all the other media outlets of The Multimedia Group.
Last year, the event started from Independence Square into the Osu township, where the High Court complex is, down into Independence Square, into the Osu Castle, into the Osu community, all the way down to Oxford Street, and all up to the Osu cemetery traffic light coming towards Accra Sports Stadium, rounding it back into Independence Square.
The story was also performed as a musical theatre piece called ‘Memory Movement Freedom’ by multiple community-based performances, dance troupes and brass bands.
Some major activities for last year’s edition of the festival were photo exhibitions, street painting, graffiti murals, interactive installations, street boxing, movie screenings, processions, design labs, movie screenings, and more.
The 14th edition of the Chalewote Street Art Festival promises to be an amplified version of last year’s.
It is organised by Accra [dot] ALT, in collaboration with Redd Kat Pictures and Chale Wote Street Art Projekt.
Source: Kwame Dadzie