TOUCOULEUR - Key Persons

Alex Moussa Sawadogo studied art history in Ouagadougou and cultural management in Hamburg, specialising in dance and film. Worked for numerous cultural institutions and projects in Burkina Faso, among others the pan African film festival FESPACO. After moving to Berlin he acted as press- and cultural attaché at the Embassy of Burkina Faso in Berlin in 2005. Recently he conceived and curated the "Border Border Express" dance festival (Hebbel am Ufer). Furthermore he co-curated the African films at the International Short Film Festival Winterthur and was artistical advisor for the "Open Doors 2012" program at Festival del Film Locarno. Mr. Sawadogo has since 2007 been the artistical director of the AFRIKAMERA film festival.

Christiane Dramé studied German, Political and Italian Studies in Berlin and Trieste. After a radio traineeship she built Germany's first 24-hour jazz broadcaster JazzRadio Berlin, where she u.a. was responsible for the PR. For six years she headed the press office of tRÄNENpALAST Veranstaltungs GmbH. Since 2006 she has worked as a freelance PR specialist with a focus on culture and education and has been responsible for numerous festivals and cultural projects in Berlin and beyond. In Luxembourg, she was involved in various projects within the framework of "Luxembourg and the Greater Region - European Capital of Culture 2007". For toucouleur e.V. she is responsible for the PR for contemporary African dance in cooperation with the HAU - Hebbel am Ufer, and she is also responsible for PR for the film festivals AFRIKAMERA and ALFILM - Arabian Film Festival. In the area of ​​cultural education, she coordinated the public relations work for the "Week of Language and Reading" in 2012, initiated by integration expert Kazim Erdogan. In addition, she works as a PR lecturer for further education providers.

Mandy Okereke studied African Area Studies at HU Berlin and Art History in a global context with a focus on Africa. She's been traveling through several west African countries for research on a regular basis. In 2010 she started working in the event service at HKW and later worked at the in-house bookshop. In 2013 she completed an internship at the Guinea Conakry branch of the French publisher L'Harmattan. She's been a member of the production team of Afrikamera since 2015.

Rebecca Pokua Korang has been working with AFRIKAMERA since 2017 and is a performative artist, empowerment trainer, and works in mobile youth work in Berlin. Her artistic research focuses on identity, migration, and German colonial history in Ghana.

Tatjana Arens studied philosophy and theater studies at the University of Leipzig, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle 3 in Paris and at the FU Berlin. Since 2015 she is cooperator at the Festspielhaus Afrika gGmbH, the project Operndorf Afrika initiated by Christoph Schlingensief, where she led several events, among others for the HKW Berlin and the Frieze London. Since 2016 she is collaborator for Afrikamera. Tatjana Arens lives and works in Berlin.

Uta Rügner graduated in philology and cultural studies in 1996, after which she was in charge of public relations at tRÄNENpalast Veranstaltungs GmbH, KULTURBRAUEREI GmbH and Kesselhaus GmbH. With Hahn Produktion she was project and production manager for the nationwide "Russischen Kulturtage in Deutschland 03/04", an international cultural dialogue, commisioned by the Foreign Ministry and the State of Berlin. Currently her expertise as project and cultural manager is utilised by organisations such as Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten (Brandenburg Memorials Foundation), Besucherdienste der Staatlichen Museen, Piranha Kultur , Artefakt Kulturkonzepte, Werbegemeinschaft Sony Center Berlin. At AFRIKAMERA she is in charge of project management and financial administration.