Catalyst Residency 2024: Fatoumata Gandega

Fire Station Artists’ Studios and Create are delighted to announce Fatoumata Gandega as the recipient of the 2024 Catalyst Residency Award.

Fatoumata Gandega is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses her craft on the sense of belonging from the Black and Brown immigrant experience in Occident. Through her work, she aims to amplify marginalised voices by exploring intersectional identities and community empowerment.

She employs a collaborative and participatory approach with communities to co-create work that reflects their authentic experiences, using mediums such as photography, filmmaking and writing. Fatoumata’s practice is rooted in storytelling, using narrative to explore themes of social justice, identity and resilience.

This residency offers artistic practice development, offering Fatoumata the opportunity to be mentored by a range of practitioners; it is designed to enable Fatoumata to step away from her everyday responsibilities and instead immerse herself in a dedicated period of reflection, mentoring, peer-to-peer conversation and strategic networking.

Fatoumata says “as an artist, I believe the world can be changed by art. It serves as a tool for giving a voice to the voiceless and illuminating society’s darkness. The Catalyst Residency offers a unique opportunity to pursue my artistic practice in a new environment. I’m excited about focusing on creative collaboration and mentorship as it will enable me to think creatively outside the box bringing fresh and innovative ideas to my creative process.”

We look forward to working with Fatoumata over the coming months to activate the residency with her.

The residency is funded through the Arts Council of Ireland’s Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create, and the Fire Station Artists’ Studios funded through the Visual Arts Department of the Arts Council of Ireland. The award is delivered through Fire Station Artists’ Studios and Create partnership.