The Garden of Connection

A small group of co-conspirators, the core of the administrative team, is supported by a range of curatorial teams made up of artists, activists, academics, researchers, speakers, and spiritual friends.

The Core Team

  • Founding Executive Director
    Mariam S. Armisen, is a feminist organiser, social researcher, writer, photographer, movement strategist, and international consultant from West Africa. For approximately twenty years, Mariam has worked across an array of fields, movements, and geopolitical regions, devoting her energies to championing causes often deemed "lost," specifically focusing on nourishing the political imaginaries and work of feminists and marginalised or criminalised communities. Her overarching goal is to collaboratively foster alternative pathways and possibilities, which she described as rhizomes of other and othered possibilities.

    Central to Mariam's organising and artistic pursuits is a deep exploration of several key themes. These include the potent influence of aesthetics, the vital process of reclaiming human dignity, the intricate and often sensual nature of interpersonal relationships, the boundless potential of creativity, and the often-overlooked significance of the improbable and the seemingly insignificant, alongside the fundamental value of goodness in our individual-collective endeavours for transformation. Through diverse initiatives and collaborative efforts with co-conspirators, she actively engages in experiments and thoughtful reflections aimed at manifesting the seemingly impossible.

    Email. mariam@djolifon.org
    Photo: Hakima Abbas

  • Curator I Head of Communications

    Anastasie is a visual artist, a cultural promoter, youth multimedia mentor and the CEO of ANAS VISION Group. She hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through art and philosophy, she examines history, collective memory, and modernity, questioning established narratives. Colonialism's harms, modern slavery, migration, gender issues, conflict, womxn's societal roles, spiritual searches, and religious resentment are at the heart of her artistic and spiritual inquiries. By highlighting the inequalities between sociocultural blocks, her work examines assimilation, inculturation and acculturation in the intercultural exchanges between North-South and East-West societies. Her work has been regularly shown in Africa and Europe since 2018.

    Email: anastasis@djolifon.org

    Instagram
    Photo: Self-portrait

Co·conspirators