Seasons of Diasporic Life

Metro54 is pleased to announce Seasons of Diasporic Life, its 2025 program, which includes (guerrilla) exhibitions, gatherings, processions, sonic lectures, research projects, commissions, radio plays, takeovers and international collaboration that reflect our ongoing commitment to bringing together artists, filmmakers, musicians, poets, activists, historians, educators and communities who practice or imagine other ways of knowing the world right here and now.

February 28–April 25, 2025
SNAPSHOTS: rea(l)m w/ S*an D. Henry-Smith
Metro54 presents rea(l)m, the latest edition of SNAPSHOTS, featuring artist, poet and sonic performer S*an D. Henry-Smith. SNAPSHOTS critically engage, dismantle and/or play with the concept of the solo exhibition through shared authorship and collaboration. This exhibition and public programs explore image, text, sound and material excess as a fluid and evolving realm. The artist describes rea(l)m as follows:”Real to reel, real to ream: what collects, makes, rea(l)m, a rendering of attempts, excesses, repetitions, rehearsals as the real thing, on the wall and in a pile, flooding the room. The book becomes a room. The books of this room stack and spill into voice, expelled beyond the wall.” Throughout the exhibition and public program, there will be live improvisations and performances that resonate through Metro54’s walls—creating new connections, iterations or versions in real time. Special guest poets, performers, thinkers and musicians will contribute their voices and artistry toward a poetry album developed during the duration of the exhibition.

May–June 2025
Diasporic Life: A Lingua Franca of Black Aliveness
Diasporic Life: A Lingua Franca of Black Aliveness is an ongoing artistic research program that looks into the meaning, conceptualization, multiplicities and complexities of Black Aliveness across Europe. The project centers the Black imaginative world and the ways it enchants everyday Black life in Europe—beyond the shadow of anti-Black violence. In what ways does Black Aliveness manifest itself in visual and sonic cultures Black people make for themselves? And what methodologies, dreams and processes (re)shape the practices and daily lives of Black artists, activists and cultural producers? Drawing together a myriad of Black voices from across Europe, the project functions as an experimental platform for (un)doing, memories, presences and togetherness for Black diasporic communities by diasporic beings. Diasporic Life program is initiated and conceptualized in collaboration with artist, curator and researcher Barby Asante.

July 12, 2025
Metro54’s 15-year anniversary Blockjam
This year, we’re delighted to critically celebrate 15 years of fostering experimental, interdisciplinary and collaborative artistic practices. 15 years of tuning into the vibrancy of sonic and visual cultures and the racial, political and ecological turmoil that shape our societies, streets and the wellbeing of our communities. 15 years of dreaming within these supremacist structures is to continuously attune to the artistic and everyday urgencies, questions and needs of our communities. It is in this spirit that we return to the street and host a special edition of our classic Blockjam—a street celebration bringing together music, art and communities.

October 2–November 29, 2025
SNAPSHOTS: Daddy Party by Chupan Atashi
Daddy Party is a new multimedia work by Chupan Atashi that focuses on themes of pain, care and sexuality within the artist’s ongoing exploration of memory. How can pain potentially be a tool of transformation and overcoming trauma? The wound must be touched for healing to happen. Presented as a collaborative solo exhibition at Metro54, curated by Radna Rumping, Daddy Party features an extensive sculptural installation, video animation, photography, performance and a public program. Seeds and roots are sprouting, bananas and limes composting, stitches are loosened, sculptures are dripping. Elements from past and present rub up against each other within a morphing constellation where colonial collapse occasions a new beginning for the lovers.

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