L.I.S.A.: Dear Mr Albaih, dear Ms Fuhrmann, you recently published an art book containing more than 30 Sudanese artists presenting, as you put it “the history and future of Sudan”. Please tell us about how the two of you met and how you came up with the idea for this project. Locale, how did you join the team and what was your role in the process?
Fuhrmann: I was following Khalid's work since I was a visiting student at Khartoum University in 2009 and got engaged in the Sudanese arts scene in the following years. He was drawing one cartoon a day under the name of Khartoon! for a while and not just the quantity but also the quality was impressive for me. I enjoyed his artistic transformation of world news and his simple aesthetics.
In 2015, our mutual friend Mayada Adil, a Sudanese fashion designer based in Paris, introduced us via email while I was living in Khartoum, Sudan, and he was working in Doha, Qatar. Khalid had told her about his idea for the book and she thought I could be the right person to approach since I was working at the program department of the Goethe-Institut Sudan at the time being engaged in the artivistic scene in Sudan. When he shared the concept with me, I was excited and started making plans for a kick-off workshop and tried to find out more about publishers to approach. This is how the three-year journey of Sudan Retold started.
Locale: We met Khalid Albaih in Khartoum in late 2017 with some of the contributing artists to Sudan Retold. Khalid had been an avid supporter of Locale and we were huge fans in return, so we were excited to sit with him and hear about the plans he and Larissa had for the book. We talked about history and art and where the two merged. First, we were asked to contribute a chapter, and we were thrilled to join the team. Then, during the process, our role grew into designing and helping to put the book together. It was challenging due to the distance. Not only because were we far away from the editors Khalid and Larissa, but our team members were also in different countries working in different timezones. Putting the book together was an incredible collaborative effort. Then, the revolution in Sudan began, and while we were producing something about our history, we were simultaneously watching history unfold before our eyes.