Va-Bene
Elikem Fiatsi

Born 1981 in Ho, Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [aka crazinisT artisT] is a trans woman with the pronoun sHit if not She. Va-Bene lives in Kumasi, Ghana but works internationally as a multidisciplinary “artivist”, curator, philanthropist, artvangelist and a mentor across several countries. She is the founder and artistic director of crazinisT artisT studiO (TTO), Our Railway Cinema Gallery (ORCG), perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) and Trans African Ambassadors Network (TAAN). All of which aimed at radicalising the arts and promoting exchange between international and local artists, activists, researchers, curators, and critical thinkers.

As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalised groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, She employs her own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video, and installations, ‘life-and-live-art’ confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, injustice, violence, objectification, internalised oppression, anti blackness and systemic indoctrination.

crazinisT has performed and exhibited across the globe including countries such as Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, Cape Verde, USA, Spain, Brazil, France, Sweden, Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, Japan, Finland, Portugal, Denmark, Austria, Romania, Kosovo and UK/Ireland.

sHit has also been featured in several, publications and magazines such as the I-D Vice London, I-D Vice Dutch, Financial Times, King Kong Magazine, CCQ London, Maimi Rails, ‘Freeflowingvisuals’, TRT WORD Film Documentary, This is Africa, Art Ghana, Lost At E Minor, CNN, BBC, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Die Tageszeitung (taz), Horizonte da Cena, Radio FRO, Reuters, Hyperallergic among others.

Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi‘s research and work stay in Berlin is part of the project Activist Choreographies of Care at ngbk and is made possible by a scholarship from the DAAD Arts and Media Program.