[A]FA EXHIBITION | Tamale´s Inner-Urban Ecologies

TIUE investigates three distinct urban sites through field research, artistic practice, and interdisciplinary analysis, revealing the coexistence of human and non-human life as well as the structures and narratives shaping these spaces.

The project has been supported by an Africa-UniNet project grant (2023–2025) and was developed jointly with the University for Development Studies (UDS) and Nuku Studio Center for Photographic Research and Practice, Tamale. The collaboration brought together academic, artistic, and local perspectives to explore the ecological and social dynamics of the city.

[A]FA’s Tamale Old Airfield Tree Transplanting Project transforms a section of the former airfield into a public landscape, planting mature savanna trees to soften the harsh terrain and create collective, shaded spaces. A video documentation presents the complex transplanting process carried out in May 2025. Extending the research beyond Ghana, the Atlas of Habitats explores multi-species and speculative ecologies, imagining beings that exist at the threshold between ecosystem and imagination.


Together, these projects form a constellation of [A]FA’s spatial, ecological, and transdisciplinary work, inviting reflection on the agencies and temporalities that shape urban and environmental futures

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[Applied] Foreign Affairs (AFA) is a transdisciplinary lab at the University of Applied Arts Vienna’s Institute of Architecture, exploring spatial, infrastructural, environmental, and cultural phenomena in rural and urban contexts across Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, founded by Baerbel Mueller in 2011.