Ria Boss: Where Music, Fashion and Ghanaian Culture Meet
- Anne
- 22 hours ago
- 4 min read
A conversation about cultural ownership, collaboration and why “the source matters”
By the time Ria Boss stepped into the audience at the Palais of Kulturbrauerei, the distance between stage and crowd had almost disappeared. Models moved between the people, wearing contemporary designs made in Ghana from traditional fabrics. They danced, sang along and became part of the performance. Behind them, visuals shifted from distorted images that evoked Ghana into abstract forms. On stage, keyboard, drums, bass and guitar met soulful vocals and spoken passages. It was a concert, but it was also a fashion presentation, a performance and a conversation about where culture comes from and who gets to shape it. At the centre of it all was Ria Boss.
Her voice remained strong throughout the set, moving easily between quieter moments and more rhythmic, groovy passages. The band could sound restrained and almost intimate before the drums suddenly pushed everything forward. At one point, each musician was given a short solo as the band was introduced. That moment felt particularly fitting. "WAX THE RICH" is built around collaboration and the people involved in creating it were never treated as background. The project began earlier this year, when Pop-Kultur's Pamela Owusu-Brenyah connected Boss with producer Elia Rediger. Rediger was already working with designer Austin Nortey of Wax Collection, and they were looking for an artist who could connect the fashion project with music and performance. Boss immediately connected with the idea. “It was really meaningful to me”, she tells us. At the heart of the collaboration was wax fabric and the question of what happens when elements of African culture travel far from where they originated. For Boss, this is about more than fashion. She wants African creatives to be able to own their work, their ideas and the value created from them. The possibility of making a performance around that idea while bringing music, fashion and performance art together was what drew her to the project. The result was "WAX THE RICH". And the title says a lot about the conversation behind it.
“The Source Matters”
Boss doesn't want the answer to cultural exchange to be separation. Quite the opposite. Her invitation is to come closer. “If you want to engage with our culture, if you want to wear our fabrics, if you want to enjoy everything that we do, it's so important for you to come to the source.” She pauses before making the point even more directly. “Come to Ghana. Come to the source.” For Boss, there is a difference between taking something from a culture and building a relationship with the people who create it. She wants audiences to discover the designers, musicians and other creatives working in Ghana and across Africa and to recognize where the work comes from. The source, in her view, should not disappear once the culture travels. That idea was visible throughout the Palais. The clothes worn during the performance were made in Ghana. The models didn't simply walk a runway; they moved through the audience and became part of the music. Boss herself left the stage and performed among the crowd. The boundaries kept shifting.
Accra and Berlin
That movement between places is also part of Boss's own experience. She first came to Berlin in 2023 as part of a residency and performed at Pop-Kultur's Franz-Garten stage. Returning to the festival with a commissioned work therefore felt like a full-circle moment. But her connection to Berlin is not simply about performing here. Boss has noticed how many creatives from Berlin travel to Accra and how many people from Accra come to Berlin. For her, these encounters can create something that neither city could necessarily produce alone. “I think this cross-collaboration is extremely beautiful and impactful”, she says. She has watched people make music together, create art together and exchange ideas across continents. The distance between Accra and Berlin suddenly becomes less significant when people are actually willing to cross it. And she wants more of that.
“I don't think anything will happen if we don't collaborate.”
Getting There Together
For Boss, collaboration is also a question of how artists choose to build their careers. She describes it through a simple idea: “If you want to get somewhere, you can. But if you want to get there fast, you have to go with somebody.” Working with other people doesn't mean giving up your own voice. Boss sees individual identity as important, but she also believes there is a greater possibility when people work together - particularly when it comes to artists and communities that have historically had less visibility. She puts it even more simply: “If I rise, you rise.” That philosophy was reflected in the structure of "WAX THE RICH". The band members were introduced individually and given their own moments. The models were active participants rather than decoration. The designer, producer, musicians and performers all became visible parts of the work. The performance itself became an argument for collaboration.
More Than a Fashion Show
By the final part of the set, the atmosphere in the Palais had changed. People were dancing. The models moved through the crowd. Boss interacted directly with the audience. When “WAX THE RICH” arrived, the energy became even more immediate, with clapping, movement and the runway continuing around the musicians. The song had arrived at the point where the different elements of the evening finally met: music, fashion, performance and audience. But Boss is interested in what happens after the performance, too. She wants people to leave with a different understanding of African creativity and perhaps with the impulse to look beyond the surface. There are designers in Ghana. There are musicians in Ghana. There are artists across Africa creating work that deserves to be seen and heard on its own terms. For Boss, visibility is therefore inseparable from ownership. The question isn't simply whether African culture is being represented. It is who gets to tell the story, who gets to create the work, who gets to own it and who gets to benefit from it. "WAX THE RICH" turns those questions into something you can hear, see and physically experience. And Ria Boss's message remains remarkably simple:
"Come to the source.”
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Want to see more from our time at Pop-Kultur Festival Berlin? Read our festival reports from August 26, 27, 28 and 29 for more impressions of the artists, performances and venues we experienced throughout the festival.
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