Samira Saidi

Samira Saidi is a Ghanaian-Austrian woman of colour whose practice aims to study and shift the sociological structures of race and belonging and explores the duality of intersectional identities through the body. After completing her Bachelor’s Degree at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Saidi began using photography and writing as the main mediums through which to bring her ideas into reality. In recent years, she has expanded her practice to include documentary photography, photojournalism, and performance art. Together, she uses these disciplines to create multimedia projects that seek to spark critical conversation around socio-economic topics. Saidi is currently studying Applied Human Rights at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Ecosystems of Healing is a photo series depicting the importance of mental health in the Global South, focusing on West Africa. The common understanding of trauma and mental wellbeing has been shaped by the experience of the West and often forms a bubble of misunderstanding towards different approaches. In African communities, family, nature, and spirituality mould the foundation of mental wellbeing. Throughout its colonial past and exploitative present this perspective towards mental health has been alienated and has resulted in the act of turning into oneself in the search of oneness. This series explores the different understandings of what it means to be mentally well in a system that has been constructed from a Western point of view.