SLOW | Clearing Space for the As Yet Unseen with Lola Olufemi

Acclaimed Black feminist writer and researcher Lola Olufemi presents her work in Helsinki for the first time at Museum of Impossible Forms on 21 March 2025, exploring the possibilities of political imagination as it relates to crisis, cultural work and the archival material of radical social movements.

Olufemi’s work interrogates the structures of oppression while imagining liberatory futures rooted in collective struggle, radical politics, and care. She is the author of Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power (Pluto Press, 2020), and Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Hajar Press, 2021). Her work bridges activism and theory, advocating for abolitionist politics, reproductive justice, and community-led organizing.

The event marks the inaugural gathering of SLOW — Seasonal Laboratories for Other Worlds, a series of exhibitionary workspaces for collective laboring and connections between bodies, places, and economies through art. Curated by Micol Curatolo in collaboration with the Museum of Impossible Forms, SLOW offers a framework for resisting capitalist temporality and exploring alternative ways of being and organizing. SLOW is part of ’Border politics in contemporary curatorial practice’ funded by Koneen Säätiö.

PROGRAM

18 March 2025
17:00–19:30 | Experiments in Imagining Otherwise, reading circle led by Micol Curatolo with Kiila ry

21 March 2025
15:00–16:00 | Workshop by Lola Olufemi with Ruskeat Tytöt (SIGN UP Link)
18:00–19:30 | Talk by Lola Olufemi
19:30–20:30 | DJ set by Wekesa

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Dr. Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and Stuart Hall foundation researcher from London who recently completed her doctorate at the Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media at the University of Westminster. Her work focuses on the uses of the political imagination and its relationship to cultural production, political demands and futurity. She is a member of ’bare minimum’, an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective. Olufemi’s forthcoming publication Against Literature will be available in 2026. 

DJ Wekesa is a Helsinki based dj and a dancer. In their sets they play amapiano, afrobeats, dancehall, hip hop, r&b and queer anthems. Wekesa is a socially skillful dj, who can read the dancefloor while serving surprises and their own strong artistic view. Throughout their DJ career they have given their input for safer space practices to the Helsinki club scene.

PARTNERS

Pp. is a small independent bookshop based in Helsinki. The shop sells both fiction and non-fiction titles, emphasising the margins of literatures. The book catalogue has titles in Finnish, English land Swedish. www.paginae.page

Hajar Press is an independent and proudly political publishing house by and for people of colour, based in London, UK. We publish ambitious and politically engaged fiction and nonfiction, including poetry and essays, by writers of colour with original and transformative ways of seeing and imagining the world. www.hajarpress.com

Ruskeat Tytöt is an association, academy and Finland’s first Culture Media for Brown Girls by Brown Girls. Its aim is to center and normalise the perspective of Brown people in the society. www.ruskeattytot.fi 

Kiila ry is the oldest functioning nonaligned leftist writers’ and artists’ association in Finland. Kiila was founded in 1936 as a counterforce to Finnish and European fascism, gathering leftist art professionals to participate in definitions of today’s left alongside feminism and movements against capitalism, fascism and racism, toward equality. www.kiila.eu