Okwui Enwezor Distinguished Lecture 2026: “Worlding: Carrying the Sun on Our Backs”

Syowia Kyambi delivers the Okwui Enwezor Distinguished Lecture 2026 at Iwalewahaus, Bayreuth

The Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple and Iwalewahaus at the University of Bayreuth welcome artist Syowia Kyambi to give the fifth Okwui Enwezor Distinguished Lecture. Her lecture, Worlding: Carrying the Sun on Our Backs, takes place on Thursday 22 October 2026 at 18:00 at Iwalewahaus. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.

About the lecture

Interwoven with soundscapes, traveling through kaleidoscopic mangroves and past projects, unpacking the ‘tummelplatz’, and listening to the waves of Gorée Island, Syowia Kyambi’s multimedia lecture explores methodologies, sustainability, and autonomy. It reflects the need for fluidity, for working and being with, and for practicing comfort within the uncomfortable. Grounded in the idea of “worlding” as a gesture of survival, the lecture considers this as a way to create time: a space where incompleteness is cherished, and where participating in the reshaping of ourselves and our frequencies with each other becomes possible.

The lecture series

The series honours Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019), one of the most internationally influential curators and art theorists of his generation, and invites artists, curators and scholars to rethink the role of art, knowledge production and institutions from a global perspective. Previous lectures were given by Chika Okeke-Agulu (2021), Nantume Violet and Salma Uche-Okeke (2022), Ulaş Bayraktar and Bediz Yilmaz (2023), and Katharina Warda (2024).

Opening the African Feminisms Gathering

The lecture opens Shaping Feminist Futures, the African Feminisms Gathering at Iwalewahaus from 22 to 24 October 2026, with panels, performance, presentations and workshops on institutional accountability, diasporic memory and feminist archival practices.

On 23 and 24 October, contributors include Solange Musanganya, Stella Nyanzi, Elsie Ndio Lotendo, Giramata, Lubi Barre, Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, Ndidi Dike, Ken Aïcha Sy and Mmakhotso Lamola, with panels moderated by Aisha Camara, a performance by Lubi Barre and Sons, and workshops with Gloria Kiconco, Nouria Natalie Asfaha, Madeline J. Bass, Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri. The gathering closes with Pungwe Listening: From the Archive to the Dancefloor with Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri.

Lecture and gathering are part of African Feminisms: Refractions, a semester-long programme at Iwalewahaus organised in collaboration with the Goethe-Instituts in Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. The gatherings belong to the Goethe-Institut project African Feminisms – Rights, Representation, Resources, an initiative of the House of African Feminisms supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

After the lecture, the group exhibition Beyond the Sweet and Obvious: African Feminisms Refracted, curated by Natasha A. Kelly, opens with a guided tour. It includes Kyambi’s installation Worlding 2.0 (2024–2026), with sound by Luisa Geier.

Event information

Lecture: Worlding: Carrying the Sun on Our Backs

Speaker: Syowia Kyambi

Date: Thursday 22 October 2026, 18:00

Programme: Welcome by Prof. Dr. Natasha A. Kelly (Professor of Global African Arts and Academic Director, Iwalewahaus) and Dr. Nadine Siegert (Director, Goethe-Institut Nigeria). PD Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong (Director of the Gender and Diversity Office, Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence) introduces Syowia Kyambi with the laudatio, followed by the lecture. Natasha A. Kelly then opens the exhibition with a guided tour together with participating artists. The exhibition is open for viewing from 17:30.

Venue: Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth, Wölfelstraße 2, 95444 Bayreuth, Germany

Admission: Free, open to the public

Access: Step-free entrance through the courtyard, reached from Münzgasse

Getting there: From Bayreuth Hauptbahnhof, bus lines 302, 303, 305, 309 or 328 towards ZOH; get off at ZOH or Luitpoldplatz.

Hosts: Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple and Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth