Wi Di Mimba Wi 2026

Tanka Fonta is the 2026 recipient of the Wi Di Mimba Wi Prize – an initiative by AKB Stiftung and SAVVY Contemporary, established in 2021 as a long-term commission grant for artists of colour based in Germany. The selected artist receives a one year working grant of 30.000 EUR, as well as funds to support the creation of a new artwork and curatorial support.

Selected from a shortlist of five outstanding cultural practitioners including Jessica Ekomane, Nnenna Onuoha, Lerato Shadi and Sarnt Utamachote, Tanka Fonta is awarded the Wi Di Mimba Wi Prize in recognition of his achievements in the fields of visual arts and sonic practices.

The jury composed of Alya Sebti (curator at HKW Berlin & co-director of ifa-Galerie Berlin until March 2026), Antje Majewski (artist and professor), Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (curator, writer, director of HKW Berlin), together with Mirjami Schuppert (curator and prize coordinator for AKB Stiftung), and Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock (executive managing co-director at SAVVY Contemporary), share in their joint statement:

STATEMENT BY THE JURY

As an artist, composer, and philosopher, Tanka Fonta convinced the jury with his compelling oeuvre developed over the past four decades and across multiple geographies. Creating space for genuine interconnection, and togetherness, Tanka Fonta’s pieces unfold as a field of vibrations, where image, sound, and poetic gestures in resonance with one another, carry living and ancestral memory. Attuned to subtle frequencies, his work collates traces, presences, and temporalities into compositions that remain open and in flux. Informed by a practice rooted in deep listening and sensing, he approaches the field of arts not through the mere production of artworks, but rather as an endeavour to better understand the worlds we inhabit and to find refuge within its tremors.

The jury congratulates Tanka Fonta for this well-deserved recognition and is looking forward to the development of this new commission.

      
Tanka Fonta  was born in Buea, Cameroon, in 1966. In his multidisciplinary practice, the visual artist, composer, poet, writer, instrumentalist, and philosopher explores human consciousness, the psychology of perception, and the subtle interplay between thought, language, sound, and visual phenomena.

Tanka Fonta examines the expressive and perceptual dimensions of thought, the evolving ecologies of the mind, and the mythopoetic narratives through which consciousness materialises. Fluent in a wide constellation of musical idioms and expressive traditions across world cultures, he integrates these sensibilities into a distinct compositional and visual grammar grounded in perception, intuition, and inquiry into symbolism.

His works have been presented at institutions including the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), Kunstverein Hannover, Goodman Gallery (Cape Town), the Goethe Institute and National Museum (Yaoundé), within institutions in Canada and the USA.

TANKA FONTA ON RECEIVING THE PRIZE

It is an honour to receive the Wi Di Mimba Wi – The AKB & SAVVY Contemporary Commission Prize with deep gratitude and humility. It is a profound gesture to have this body of work recognized in such a thoughtful, forward-looking, and visionary context. Such an extraordinary and pivotal moment offers us, as recipients, portals and apertures with the possibilities of a new awakening and a new beginning: a chance for instantaneous transformation and for the shaping of a new creative world in which our human spirit of creativity remains foundational to the wider discourse of existence.

I am especially moved by the visionary nature of this initiative, which opens meaningful space for artists from various cultures, histories, and sensibilities to contribute more fully to our shared cultural landscape. From my point of view, creativity is one of the vital elixirs that shapes, propels, and defines the harmonic balances of creation through the living balance of momentous inquiry, reason, logic, and action. I am sincerely grateful to SAVVY Contemporary and the AKB Stiftung, and I look forward to the work and dialogue that will unfold from this valuable collaboration.

      
ABOUT THE PRIZE

In addition to celebrating and rewarding an artist’s outstanding work, this grant is an invitation to relate, to collaborate and to create together – according to the philosophies and practices lived by SAVVY Contemporary. Our intent with this initiative is to build a strong relationship and support for artists of colour towards a richer and more diverse cultural landscape.

Thanks to the generous support of the AKB Stiftung, the selected artist receives a one year working grant of 30.000 EUR, as well as funds to support the creation of a new artwork and curatorial support. It is planned that the new piece or body of work will be exhibited at SAVVY Contemporary and other venues.

The grant is open to artists of colour based in Germany of all backgrounds, media, ages, stages of career. Candidates were nominated by a board of advisors and selected by a five-member jury. This program is a long-term engagement to build sustainable support structures in the art world. The grant is being awarded every two years. Previous recipients are Jean-Ulrick Désert (2022) and Setareh Shahbazi (2024).

The AKB Stiftung is a foundation based in Einbeck, Germany. Established by Carl-Ernst Büchting in 1998.

SAVVY Contemporary is an artistic organisation, discursive platform, place for good talks, foods and drinks – a space for conviviality and cultural plurilog.