Matadero Madrid center for contemporary creation

From May to June 2023

Louna Sbou

Cartographies of Displacement (CoD) - on transnational solidarity, queer narratives and diasporic utopia

Cartographies of Displacement (CoD) explores the impact of displacement and isolation on artistic practice and collective-making - specifically in the case of Queer, Trans*, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (QTBIPOC) artists while celebrating their existential works and imagining an inclusive, decolonial and queer-feminist future.

How does (forced) displacement and isolation affect one's artistic practice and personal standpoint? Do art and culture offer a path to healing, to networks of solidarity and care to overcome isolation? What QTBIPOC led futures can we speculate on?

With 862,085 immigrants in Madrid (2017, Comunidad de Madrid) and a noticeable presence of QTBIPOC artists, this research presents the significant role of memory, archiving and curation as a tool for advancing social movements and knowledge-production outside of the museum and ivory-tower of academia.

This research deals with (un)belonging, homesickness, pain, freedom and oppression focusing on the impact of displacement and isolation on artistic and personal practice -specifically in the case of QTBIPOC immigrant artists in Spain and Germany.

Through collaborative sessions in Madrid and Berlin, this project will readdress the hegemony of narratives set by the dominant demographic while challenging the status quo and promoting visibility of pluralist (sub)societies.

BIO

Louna Sbou is a curator, mentor, and cultural producer. She is the director of Oyoun in Berlin, the anti-disciplinary arts centre with a particular focus on queer-feminist, decolonial and class-critical perspectives. 

Her lived experience as a queer Muslim and first generation immigrant led to an unconventional journey allowing her to actively engage in shaping contemporary curatorship while experimenting with a non-Western approach to collective-making.

She has curated numerous exhibitions, performances, and interdisciplinary festivals including Un:Imaginable in Ruanda and Bosnia (2022/2023) with Hope Azeda, Moudjahidate* (2022) with Nadja Makhlouf, Maya Inés Touam and Sarah El Hamed, Embodied Temporalities in Berlin, Birmingham, Prague and Lesbos (2022) with Ahmed Baba, Gugulethu Duma, Sujatro Ghosh, Backbone (2021) with Mazen Khaddaj. 

She worked as director of be’kech in Germany (2016-2022), independent curator in Japan (2016-2019) and program director at Station with late artist Leila Alaoui and Nabil Canaan in Lebanon (2013-2015), collaborating with Bernardine Evaristo, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Dr. Tiffany Florvil, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Mary Maggic, Donatella Bernardi, Renata Salecl, Panashe Chigumadzi, Lamin Fofana, Tewa Barnosa, and more.

Over the past year, Louna held lectures at  West Den Haag Museum, Transformation Marseille, Ubumuntu Kigali, Berliner Festspiele, Caisa Helsinki, Performing Arts Festival, University of Fine Arts Berlin, Goethe Institut, and won a number of fellowships in Japan, Spain, Germany and Greece.

She holds a master degree from University of Wales (Cultural Entrepreneurship, 2014) and University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen (Law, 2012).

Louna takes no bullshit though afraid of heights, a mother of two and vegan since 1991. She is a beneficiary of the mobility residency for curators of the Matadero Madrid Centre for Artists in Residence in collaboration with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program