OUR ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE 2026: SAMUEL BAAH KORTEY

We are delighted to introduce another artist joining us for this year’s Artist-in-Residence programme at Opera Village: SAMUEL BAAH KORTEY. The artist and cultural practitioner comes from Kumasi, Ghana, and works across painting, sculpture and installation. His artistic practice focuses particularly on postcolonial histories, cultural identities and the lasting impact of colonial experiences on African societies. He also engages with collective trauma, using it as a starting point to open up new perspectives and conversations. His works can be confronting and unsettling, but above all, they invite reflection and create space for dialogue and healing.

Samuel studied Fine Arts, specialising in Painting, at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, where he also completed his Master’s degree in Painting and Sculpture in 2022. In 2023, he was a Villa Romana Fellow in Florence and also studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in Willem de Rooij’s class. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at documenta fifteen in Kassel, the Stellenbosch Triennale in South Africa and KREMA Festival in Switzerland.

WHAT CONNECTS US AND WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM EACH OTHER?

For Samuel, his residency at Opera Village is above all an opportunity to build new connections and discover common ground. He is interested in how colonial history continues to shape relationships between African countries today. Although Ghana and Burkina Faso are direct geographical neighbours, their different colonial histories, languages and cultural contexts have often made exchange more difficult. Samuel is particularly interested in how these barriers can be overcome and what people and societies can discover they have in common across them.

He sees his residency as an invitation to focus on what connects us rather than always emphasising our differences. He wants to share his experiences from Ghana, meet people from the local community and develop new perspectives together. For him, cultural exchange is never a one-way process. Having presented his work and participated in numerous projects in Europe, he is particularly keen to strengthen the presence of his artistic practice on the African continent and to give something back to the communities that shape and inspire him.

Samuel arrives with many questions and a desire to spark conversations. He wants to challenge familiar assumptions, explore new forms of togetherness and discover which stories and experiences people share across national borders. We are delighted to welcome Samuel to Opera Village and look forward to the encounters, ideas and artistic impulses that will emerge from his time here.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAMME: WWW.OPERNDORF-AFRIKA.COM/ARTIST

The Artist-in-Residence programme 2026–2027 is funded by