Géraldine Tobé, Jean David Nkot and Michel Ekeba should be no less than ambassadors of an entire continent.

With "Memory of today, memory of the future", the three artists from Africa have created a work that is intended to have an impact far beyond the borders of their continent - even into space.

What sounds crazy is the result of the African Space Art Project, a competition launched in 2018 on the initiative of the French non-governmental organization African Artists for Development (AAD-Fund), the marketer of the Ariane launch vehicles, Arianespace, and EUMETSAT, the Darmstadt-based operating organization of weather satellites.

The search was for a work of art that draws attention to the strategic importance of weather satellites for Africa, the continent that contributes the least CO2 to the global amount,

but suffers most from global warming and extreme weather events.

The meteorological data collected by the satellite are all the more important.

For the flight into space, the work of the three artists will be attached to the launch vehicle in digitized form.

This is completely unusual, assures Vincent Gabaglio, who is responsible for international cooperation at EUMETSAT.

"The space on the launch vehicle is actually priceless."

Nicole Nadine Seliger

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

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He is proud to be working on this project, says Nkot, who came to the EUMETSAT headquarters in Darmstadt with Tobé in May to present the work.

"It's great that we have a satellite dedicated to our continent." In January 2022, Tobé, Nkot and Ekeba - three renowned artists in their homeland - started work and lived together for two months in a house in Benin, the provided by the country's Ministry of Culture.

How do artists who are used to creating solo work together?

"We asked ourselves that question every day," says Nkot and laughs.

It wasn't easy.

"The challenge was to overcome our egos," he adds.

"But there was a need to articulate a message for the world and for Africa, and something came out of it that

100 selected young African artists under the age of 40 were asked to take part in the competition.

There were hardly any requirements.

All techniques and styles were allowed: from painting and photos to sculptures and performances.

It was only important that the idea dealt with the topics of space and climate.

60 of the invited artists submitted a proposal.

A jury of musicians, actors and artists selected the three finalists, Géraldine Tobé and Michel Ekeba from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Jean David Nkot from Cameroon, who had to face another jury.

When these 16 representatives could not decide, they asked the remaining artists to work together as a trio.

The finished work of art is now the combination of the three ideas.

A replica will remain in Darmstadt in the long term

They worked one after the other on the work, which measures approximately 80 centimeters by 2.5 meters: first the cartography in acrylic by Nkot as a background, then Tobé burned onto the canvas with the fumage technique the silhouettes of a woman who gets up and starts to run.

The motif is also intended to symbolize how people turn to the future, explains the artist.

Finally, the photos of the astronaut suits that performance artist Ekeba creates from recycled electronics.

The different colors of the astronauts are supposed to symbolize the different climate zones of Africa, says Nkot.

The original of "Memory of today, memory of the future" will not leave the earth, but you can still travel: Among other things, in Paris, Brussels, Tanzania, Benin, Morocco, Cameroon,

It will be issued to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa before it is finally to be handed over to the African Union Commission.

A replica will remain in Darmstadt in the long term.