AKOSUA VIKTORIA ADU-SANYAH – RESIDUAL SKY UNDER CONTAMINATION
9TH TRIENNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY HAMBURG
5 June 2026 – 1 November 2026
About the exhibition
Large-format, hand-developed color prints are characteristic of the artistic work of Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah (b. 1990). Through manual and chemical processes, the German-Ghanaian artist shifts and expands the boundaries of photography. By transferring the fleeting states of analogue development – otherwise only experienced in the darkroom – into the exhibition space, she makes the unseen, latent, and processual nature of the medium perceptible.
The starting point for her current works are historical photographs from the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection in Bristol, taken at her father's birthplace in present-day Ghana. In search of alternative narratives, she detaches skies, treetops, and landscapes from their colonial context and transfers these extracted fragments of nature onto color negatives. A recurring image in her work is a portrait of her great-grandfather Wilhelm Schlüter in the German Air Force. “For me, this photograph functions less as a historical document than as a kind of ghost. (...) The image represents a structural disturbance in my own existence,” says the artist.
»Beauty is a form of dignity – something that emerges through survival, through endurance.«
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah
About the Artist
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah Sanyah (b. 1990) is a German-Ghanaian artist based in Zurich. She works with photographic objects, installations, painting, and process-oriented image development. Recent solo exhibitions include “no flowers” at the Centre culturel suisse, Paris; “Residual Sky” at Kunsthaus Glarus; “Corner Dry Lungs” at the MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main; and “The House Is a Body” at the Bristol Photo Festival, as well as presentations at Art Basel Hong Kong and Foam Museum Amsterdam. She is a recipient of the Swiss Art Award. Her works are held in numerous public collections, including the Kunsthaus Zürich, the MMK, and the Stedelijk Museum.
DARK ROOMS, ANALOGUE FREQUENCIES
In collaboration with the HFBK Hamburg – University of Fine Arts, we are establishing an open black-and-white photo lab with a darkroom as part of the exhibition. The accompanying workshop program creates space for encounters, convergences, and contradictions, responding to a desire for community and materiality. The focus is on the emotional, decelerated, and reconciling qualities of analogue photography: as it emerges and fades, it opens up alternative temporalities and resistant futures.
Analog Infrastructures
The first edition of the “Analog Infrastructures” poster presents a cartographic representation of the dwindling resources of analog photography in Germany: This high-quality print brings together open darkrooms, analog photography courses, as well as self-organized collectives and associations. The graphic design not only provides detailed information about the individual locations and their accessibility, but also highlights Germany’s sparsely populated and densely populated areas.
Size: DIN A1 (59.4 x 84.1 cm), rolled
The poster is available for 8 Euro in the online shop and at the ticket desk in PHOXXI.
Graphic design: MENSCHMASCHINE Studio.
