'John Akomfrah: the film-maker exposing the colonial adventures of microorganisms and more' – The Art Newspaper

5 January 2024

The Venice Biennale-bound artist discusses his latest video work exploring the so-called Columbian exchange and tells us why his films owe a debt to cinema but are “rendered slightly strange”

The British-Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah has been pushing the boundaries of film for more than four decades. Having started out with experimental documentaries such as Handsworth Songs (1986)—which looks at the British race riots of the early 1980s—he has in more recent years developed a reputation for richly layered, multiscreen installations exploring topics such as climate change, colonialism and time. Akomfrah’s work is intensely collaborative; he co-founded the Black Audio Film Collective in 1982, and then Smoking Dogs Films in 1998.

Akomfrah was knighted last year, and 2024 brings yet another major milestone as he prepares to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. This follows on from his 2019 contribution to the inaugural Ghana pavilion in Venice. In the run-up to this year’s Biennale, Akomfrah has released a new work, Arcadia (2023), exhibited first at the Sharjah Biennial and now in an edited form at The Box in Plymouth, UK. The film, shown across five screens organised in the shape of a cross, traces the formation of the New World and highlights the migrations of—among other things—people, commodities, plant life and diseases (known as the “Columbian exchange”) that played a role. Partly a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Arcadia also leaves, like so many of his films, a lot open to interpretation. And that, Akomfrah says, is exactly how he wants it.

The Art Newspaper: You have talked about how the ideas behind the film Arcadia changed a lot over the course of the research process. How would you describe the final product to someone who is seeing it for the first time?

John Akomfrah: I think my ideal viewer watching for the first time should think, “Okay, I’m here to watch something about how the New World was opened up.” And then think, “Oh, but this isn’t what I meant by [that] at all.” In other words, I want people who are interested in the drama of the colonial adventure to realise that not all of it is entirely the responsibility of human beings.

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