AKKA Project Venice: Beyond the Exhibition

Interview - Reframing support, slowness, and long-term commitment as African artistic ecosystems shift and return to the continent.
For over a decade, the founder of AKKA, Lidija Khachatourian, has operated with a quiet but deliberate consistency, first in Dubai and now in Venice, centring African and diasporic artists within a model that extends far beyond the exhibition format. Rooted in care, continuity, and direct material support, its approach has resisted the pace and pressures of the market. Yet as artistic energy increasingly consolidates on the continent, driven by returning diasporas and self-sustaining networks, AKKA finds itself at a turning point. In this moment of recalibration, the gallery begins to rethink its role, moving toward deeper, research-led collaborations in which exhibitions emerge not as endpoints but as the visible traces of longer, more meaningful engagements. Lidija Khachatourian spoke to ART AFRICA about her unique approach to bridging the gap between the traditional gallery model.
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5 May 2026