Workshops / Residencies

Toloku Arts and Projects

RESIDENCY / BIENNALE

2025 - MAI Residency on Joseph Beuys (Marina Abramović Institute with Museum Moyland) at Bedburg-Hau

2025 - BijlmAIR Residency, CBK Zuidoost Amsterdam

2024 - iii workspace , The Hague

2024 - Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana

2022 - 2024- Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam

2020 - Kampala Art Biennale ( KAB20 )

2019 - PerfocraZe International Artist Residency - pIAR ,Kumasi Ghana

2015 - Territoire de Creation, art residency at Lome, Togo

WORKSHOP

2020 - Photography and dance workshop by artist Cristina Lilienfeld and Alina Ușurelu, crazinisT artisT studiO Kumasi

2020 - How to make a house for an alien by artist Linh Le at crazinisT artisT Studio, Kumasi

2019 - Virtual Reality workshop at Alliance Française Accra.

2019 - Jobs for the Youth ,boot camp supported by British council and Giz

About Me

Martin Toloku is Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist born 1992 in Adidome the Volta region of Ghana.

He graduated in 2013 from Sogakofe Senior High School, ( SOGASCO ), where he studied visual art majoring in ceramics and later took an apprenticeship in sculpture with a traditional carver. He is an alumni of Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam ( 2022 to 2024)

Martin Toloku’s practice evolved over the years from carving to installation, video work, studio practice, live performances and collaboration with both humans and animals (usually termites). He is fascinated about the materiality of 'process of decay', death, life, time, space and nature with its inhabitants. Collecting dead and rotten wood from rivers, streams, sea, lakes, forests and his environment Toloku attempts to recreate conceptual and performative compositions of both life and death into daily experiences. However, he seeks to experiment and inquire into decay as metaphor while in his performances are emotionally and spiritually challenging the audience in facing their own sense of mortality.

Toloku has featured in several exhibitions and has participated in international artists residencies/biennales such as iii residency program 2024 The Hague, perfocraZe International Artist residency (2019 Kumasi, Ghana), Ghana Must Go Forward (2018 workshop supported by Nubuke Foundation, Basecamp Initiative and British council), Territoire de Creation art residency 2015 at Lome Togo, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana 2024 and Kampala Art Biennale ( KAB20 ) 2020.

He also participated in Chale wote street art festival Jamestown Accra, 2017 to 2019 and several group exhibitions in the Netherlands, Germany and Barcelona.

Toloku is currently working on a new project inspired by the theme DECAY.