Baff Akoto's XR installation Collateral Echoes premieres at Sheffield DocFest's Alternate Realities 2025
The 2025 Alternate Realities programme at Sheffield DocFest delves into themes of memory, grief, identity, and resistance via immersive narratives. From 18 June to 13 July 2025, Site Gallery will host British-Ghanaian artist Baff Akoto's inaugural solo exhibition, Collateral Echoes. This XR installation confronts systemic violence faced by Black and immigrant Britons following police interactions since 1969, incorporating archival visuals and vocal contributions from Paapa Essiedu and Benjamin Zephaniah. Akoto, recognized as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and winner of the Aesthetica Art Prize for Leave the Edges (2022), investigates diasporic cultural expression. The programme also features DOLLHOUSE for Queer Imaginaries, Speechless Witness of a Wandering Tree on Iran, and Impulse: Playing with Reality, narrated by Tilda Swinton, with Akoto aiming for collective healing through his art.
Key facts
- Collateral Echoes is Baff Akoto's first solo exhibition at Sheffield DocFest's Alternate Realities programme
- The XR installation runs from 18 June to 13 July 2025 at Site Gallery
- It addresses deaths of Black and immigrant Britons after police contact since 1969
- Akoto won the Main Prize at the Aesthetica Art Prize for Leave the Edges (2022)
- Voice work includes Paapa Essiedu and poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah
- Sheffield DocFest's 2025 theme focuses on memory, grief, identity, and resistance
- Akoto is a British-Ghanaian artist born in London and raised in Accra
- Alternate Realities also features works on queer utopias, Iran repression, and ADHD narrated by Tilda Swinton
Entities
Artists
- Baff Akoto
- Tilda Swinton
- Paapa Essiedu
- Benjamin Zephaniah
- Anna Müller
Institutions
- Sheffield DocFest
- Alternate Realities
- Site Gallery
- Aesthetica Magazine
- Aesthetica Art Prize
- Screen International
- Whitechapel Gallery
- Institute of Contemporary Arts
- MeetMarket
Locations
- Sheffield
- United Kingdom
- London
- Accra
- Ghana
- Iran