Interview with MIASA Artist in Residence Karim Stone
MIASA: Good afternoon Karim Stone. You spent the past three months here at MIASA as an Artist in residence. During your residency you produced an art piece. What was it about?

MIASA CC-BY-4.0: Stone at public performance at MIASA, 7 Dec. 2023
Stone: My work is non-academic. It is based on a human understanding and my experience of democracy as a Cameroonian and an African artist. I’m putting questions on the table, and I want to create awareness of problems going on. The art piece which I created at MIASA is the beginning of a work reflecting on the concept of “demo-crazy”. The concept was first introduced by the Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti, exploring the aspect of “craziness” in demo-crazy1. I realised that we share the same vision. The way democracy was imported on the African continent doesn’t work for African societies. Democracy is supposed to be the “government for the people by the people”, but people only vote. In Cameroon, every few years, elections build a new class of bourgeoisie. We need practices which are more rooted, based on our own original structures. It may be utopic, but dreaming is free of charge. In most African countries, the large majority of people is addressed in a language they don’t understand. Those in power are the perpetrators, but as they define the rules, the victims are already placed guilty. Demo-crazy is the “demonstration of craziness”. “Demo-crazy” also defines my perception of the relationship between Western countries and Africa. When I say I look at the world like a crime scene, where criminals are the ones proceeding the autopsy and place the victims as guilty, those who have committed the biggest crimes in history are the ones teaching human rights.

Stone CC-BY-4.0: Two photographies of Stone at the public exhibition at MIASA, Dec. 2023
At the end of your stay the MIASA, one of MIASA’s office rooms has been transformed into an art installation. How did you translate your ideas into your art creation at MIASA and what kind of artistic genres does your work involve?

MIASA CC-BY-4.0: Visitor at public exhibition at MIASA, 7 Dec. 2023
Stone: I use poetry, photography, Poetography, abstract plastic art, and visual animation. In my work at MIASA, I installed black walls in the room, in order to create a dark box, in which visitors can enter and focus on the exhibition. On one side of the room I display a video installation, in which I reflect myself on the topic of “demo-crazy”. On the other side of the room, I display photographs in black and white of ordinary people I met in Accra, in particular, in the neighbourhood of Jamestown, people who are already placed “guilty”, and who told me their stories. In the beginning I thought of writing these stories, but through my interactions here in Accra, I now find it more interesting to have the voices of the people I show in the photographs. We need their voices. Even though we already had a public display of the installation at MIASA, my work is still in progress. I intend to pursue it in Germany, and I’m planning to have a final exhibition in Stuttgart by end of March. For the moment, I continue recording on the streets of Accra for collecting more audios.
How do you describe your work as an artist, also in comparison to the kind of work you have observed with the researchers around you at MIASA? How did you experience this stay in the middle of a research institute?

MIASA CC-BY-4.0: Installation of the exhibition at MIASA, 7 Dec. 2023
I observe a lot, and I always want to create a dialogue between the place and the people. That is why visitors of the installation receive a piece of chalk. They react to the topic, and can write a comment on the black walls. We can see this as a way for me to create an art piece that is not open to listen. My perception of art is not entertaining. Art includes an educational and informational aspect. In this sense, being with researchers for the past three months was an advantage and very inspiring. I see my art like a bridge or a spider net that opens doors between the different sources of knowledge production that constitute my universe. I’m sometimes here at MIASA, having conversations, and I’m also having conversations in Jamestown. Both contexts have few interactions with each other and speak different languages. I speak to both sides in a process of learning. I do not come out with what I would call a “study”. I create an alert, a bridge, I invite people to experience something on their own. I see my art as a window between different universes. Observing the scholars around me I sometimes had the impression that researchers use academic tools and protocols in order to stay safe behind what they say. Academics sometimes use a very hermetic language which in my opinion doesn’t help them to be understood by the rest of the world. As an artist, you do not need this kind of control over what you produce. The strength of an art piece lays in its openness. It makes the artist more vulnerable, but also very powerful. Art can create a larger dialogue – the possibility of dialogues, as my art reflects my own perceptions, and people react by emotions. Art creates connections.
Stone Karim Mohamad is a poetograph, poet, photographer and filmmaker from Cameroon, who is based in Stuttgart (Germany). He was MIASA artist in residence from 15 September to 15 December 2023.
The interview was conducted by Dr. Susann Baller and Dr. Agnes Schneider-Musah at MIASA on 13 December 2023. You can find here more visual impressions from MIASA artist in residence events with Stone Karim Mohamad.
- Fela Kuti on “Democracy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrdkdHKhQBk. Fela Kuti also reflects on this topic in his song “Democracy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAvRIaj2NkE. Later, his son Femi Kuti released a song on “Demo-crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Fb0XtATFc. [↩]
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teammiasa (January 14, 2024). Interview with MIASA Artist in Residence Karim Stone. Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa - Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2025 from https://miasa.hypotheses.org/1613