Rejuvenate Kaxoxo is a performance project which incorporates professional wood carving, a work involving a procession with seven performers who are dressed in a uniform holding in their hands a wooden sculpture of a fetus in a  durational procession through the street of Accra at the 2025 Chale Wote streets art . The work questions how our actions and inactions affect the past and future, a wake up call for making positive decisions in shaping the moments ahead of us.Combining ritualistic elements with the use of surgical costumes as a symbolic gesture, the performance  evokes the energy of rejuvenation. Inspired by an ewe proverb ‘‘Kaxoxowo nu wo gbia yeyawo da’’ meaning we have to build on previous prototypes, following the footsteps/memories and ideas of people who fought and paved the way since the world depends on our individual journey. 

This piece was co-performed by Michelle Samba, Karel Van Laere, Marcella Nuerkie Akuetteh, Wisdom Abotsi, Bernard Dzidefo Afanyedor and Saviour Nayram Zottor.

Supported by: Amarte Fonds 

Costume by:   Nuerkien Fashart

Photography: Amudzi Mawuenya

A project in Reaction to Joseph Beuys  Collection. 2025-2026

Wounded Soul is a durational Performance with an installation consisting of 7 doors each connected  with  a rope that are attached to my body in  restriction, a  condition which confronts the inner freedom of movement. The performance activates the doors to  either stay open or closed  at the same time it is a manifestation of struggle, discomfort, unrest and inner war. The work connotes the reaction of a soul stuck in confinement and pain. In desperation a body is found trapped between the walls of a confirmed portal,  a tormented environment evokes the horror of the past trapped in the future. 

The performance is inspired by Joseph Beuys installation Hinter dem Knochen wird gezählt – SCHMERZRAUM [Behind the Bone is Counted – PAIN SPACE],  where light is absorbed into a lead wall living audiences to encounter their own fear and vulnerability of being in confinement, the reencounter with oneself which opens up to the exterior to become part of a social body. 

My performance translates the inner  conversation of how the installation could remind me of our individual fear, trauma, struggle and self healing from the memories that could evoke unhealed pains and wounds. The 7 doors as a symbol are borrowed from traditional rituals of healing coming from the culture of the Ewe tribes in the Volta region of Ghana. It reopens 7 portals of energy, a sign that ushers you into the unknown at the same it becomes a maze of confrontations. This can be related to how shamanism and religious iconographies plays a role in Joseph Beuys practice in relation to ritual.