Room 2 — AFROTOPIE

Already on the threshold of the second room of Afrotopias, we are welcomed by the golden smile of a young boy from a photograph by Beninese photographer Shawn Newson. This is one of the ordinary scenes from the life of young people in Porto-Novo. It is accompanied by a shot of another young man doing ollie on a skateboard in the middle of the street. The lifestyle frames, as if taken out of music video clips made in the Californian suburbs, are a clear testimony to globalization and the popularization of American trends. They also seem to reflect the universal experience of juvenescence. For the artist himself, they also constitute a specific warning against losing oneself in stylizations and imagined ideas about one’s own self. Hence the somber title Ego Death.

Newson Hounkpatin (b. 2001), also known as Shawn, is a multidisciplinary Beninese artist who works with photography, cinema, and artistic direction. After graduating from high school, he studied computer science for four years. In 2019, he decided to enroll in ADS (Africa Design School) and obtained his DNMADE in Digital Design in 2021. Driven by a strong passion for art in all its forms, he refined his vision and developed his skills. It encouraged him to approach his art with the precision of a designer while preserving his artistic essence. In 2022, he also had the opportunity to explore another dimension of his art by working as a photographer and visual artist for UNICEF. This experience enriched his understanding of humanity and brought a deeper insight to his artistic practice. In December 2023, one of the photos from the series Tete, The Young Lady was featured on PHOTO VOGUE website as PIC OF THE DAY. This honor was renewed in January 2024 with a photograph from the series Hippie Yoruba on the Beach. Drawing inspiration from cinema in its aesthetics and codes, the artist explores themes rooted in Beninese and African cultures and communities. His main ambition is to inspire journeys through his art and the meanings behind it and to contribute to the artistic radiance of Benin and the African continent.

The story of going beyond one’s ego and towards community experience can also be found in the diptych by Mganga Mwagogo. In the first photograph, we can see a driver of boda boda, a common means of transport in East Africa. Drivers of these Chinese motorbikes transport not only people but also goods, meals, and mail, they do the shopping and run errands. One could say that they set the economic bloodstream of the region into motion. The second photograph depicts an apparently trivial view: a pile of plastic chairs. Dozens of identical plastic chairs waiting to be arranged at the table to start the crowded gathering of family, friends, acquaintances, and neighbors. Sharing and spending time together are fundamental for living in a community, and functioning outside it is actually unimaginable. If the Ubuntu philosophy were to have its monument, it could take the form of such chairs complemented by the motto from this ethical system: ‘I am because we are.’

He’s a self-taught photographer and director based in Nairobi, Kenya, but working across Africa. In his artistic practice, he is dedicated to documenting and celebrating the diverse life experiences of African people while simultaneously challenging stereotypical portrayals produced by non-African societies. Maganga uses documentary photography style to present unfiltered stories and directly engage viewers with the idea of thriving, optimism-driven African societies.

The images by Maganga Mwagogo not only capture a moment in time but also provoke a reflection on the importance of unbiased and accurate records of events, people, and places in Kenya – and Africa at large. The artist hopes to create a comprehensive, relevant archive that one day would serve as a reference point for future generations.

Working with the concept of community and the tension that this idea creates in the clash with the category of private property constitute central issues in Kiboko Kamau’s artistic practice. In his activities on the intersection of performance and painting, called Kata-Kata (Swahili: to cut), he divides the surfaces of his paintings into fragments that are later bought by individuals at discretionary prices. The reconstruction of the entire piece of work may potentially happen only when the owners of the particular fragments meet. The sculpture-based installation by Kiboko also addresses the subject of a surprising potential encounter. A preternaturally tall, cardboard mannequin dressed in stylish attire, hand-painted by the artist, could look like an extremely fashionable inhabitant of Nairobi if not for the fact that the head of the figure had been inspired by Nigerian sculptures. Through this object, Kiboko Kamau presents an interesting example of a dialog between the East and the West of Africa.

Kiboko Kamau is a creative and curator born in Nairobi and educated in the UK. In 2004, he received the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design from the University of the Creative Arts (Epsom), and in 2009, he earned a bachelor’s degree in illustration arts at the University of the Arts London (Camberwell). Kiboko creates large-scale, figurative, mixed-media works called Kata Kata. Through Kata Kata, he explores themes related to identity, origin, cultural narratives, and ownership. Kiboko is the founder of Ifreecans Collective, co-founder of Studio Ifreecans, and co-founder of Studio Nooma – creative platforms that explore multidisciplinary, cross-cultural collaborative projects. In 2010, he participated in an art residency in Marrakesh, Morocco, and presented his Kata Katainstallation during Nairobi Design Week 2023. His works have been exhibited in several institutions, including the Saatchi Gallery, Harrow Arts Centre, Remp-Art Gallery, the Rag Factory, Candid Arts Galleries, the Original Gallery, Little Antiques Fair, the Society of Black Lawyers, Artists Open Studios in Laguna Beach, and Arte De Los Muertos in San Francisco. Kiboko currently lives and works in Nairobi and Paris.

In the studied frames from the series Point of Contact by James Muriuki, red Kenyan soil clashes with industrial and architectural materials to ultimately transform into the city fabric under the touch of a construction worker. This long-term photographic project is Muriuki’s tribute to Nairobi – the vibrant capital of Kenya and a city under constant construction, subject to constant change. Every day, with the effort of an enormous number of physical workers, it forges its identity in stone and rusty dust. Muriuki carefully studies these processes and mixes architectural, social, and landscape dimensions, turning them into one humanistic perspective, in which the dug-up, dense, and compellingly eclectic Nairobi becomes a self-portrait of modern-day Kenya.

James Muriuki is a Nairobi-based artist specializing in photography and lens-based media. He is interested in transitioning societies in the Global South, the different knowledge systems occurring within the visual arts environments of these societies, and how these systems are woven into the social fabric. James uses materials and objects of personal or communal reference as visual elements and metaphorical symbols to illustrate human capacity. He tugs at the threads of the interdependence of circumstance in our turbulent social frameworks: the modern and the traditional; the spontaneous and the customary; the desirable and the aspirational. He investigates and experiments with the potential of images as media and the processes of making art: photography and motion; video and sound, treating them ultimately as reservoirs of knowledge and channels of communication. James’ works have been exhibited in several institutions, are collected globally, and have been included in many publications. He has collaborated with other artists, attended residencies and workshops in different countries, and is a grant recipient. He has worked as a designer and as a gallery manager and curator of a renowned Nairobi Art Institution before venturing off into private practice in 2011. He has carried out many photographic commissions in various capacities – from training photographers to developing and curating photography exhibitions, including Frontiers of the Present: Exploring New Ideas in Photography, Nairobi; Passing It On: Inventorying Living Heritage in Africa, Windhoek; and co-curating In Memorium and Constructions as part of the collective ‘3Collect’ of which he was a founding member. He was central in the publication of the art magazine ‘Msanii,’ the artist book ‘Layers,’ and contributed to the UNESCO publication ‘Documenting Living Heritage.’ He is an alumnus of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre of Curatorial Leadership, Fellowship and Training.

The documentary diptych by Solomon Kyalo touches upon the political sphere in the most direct way. The artist operates with portraits of the presidents of Kenya: Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto. In a symbolic photograph, two smartly dressed white men are contemplating the photograph of President Kenyatta, which is hanging on the wall above their heads. According to the artist himself, this is a metaphorical story about the postcolonial complexities of the Kenyan public sphere. Since winning independence, the country’s political elites have been constantly played out by the global superpowers, as well as subject to external influences, which resulted in their lack of contact with the people and their problems. The promise of listening carefully to what ‘ordinary people’ needed and the apparent anti-elitist approach granted power to William Ruto – the man in the portrait held by the protagonist in the second photograph. At the moment, mass protests against this president are sparking across Kenya, and several artists contributing to Afrotopias participate in them.

My younger years were a time of political tensions with Kenya caught in the grip of an autocratic regime. Growing up in the Eastlands side of Nairobi – a region rich in political history and pop-cultural influence across the country, I witnessed my mother (a new generation of a young, independent nation) becoming deeply involved in politics. As I grew older, I became more immersed in communities that used art as self-expression and activism to bring about social change. I bear witness to that strong influence in my work which transcends mere documentation. It is grounded in the human experience, the simple yet elaborate everyday moments in life, in the natural world, communities, and culture. It is a tool of expression, connection, and meditation.

The time-lapse video The Labor of Our Hands by Neema Ngelime reminds us that the clear division between the private and the political is just an illusion. Especially for women. In a rhythmic sequence of frames, the Tanzanian artist presents three stories about women’s work. She focuses on their hands. The first part shows two farmers – a mother and a daughter – engaged in preparing the land for cultivation. Another part portrays another mother and daughter whose hands are busy with doing the chores and looking after the children. The final segment shifts the focus onto the hands of a modern-day singer as she prepares for an evening event. This poetic narrative reveals a story about both paid and unpaid work of women, which is often invisible in patriarchal societies, and yet, invariably, it serves as a basis for the functioning of the community – whether the small one, such as a family, or the large, understood in socio-economic terms.

She’s a Tanzania-born documentary photographer and filmmaker who captures the beauty of everyday life from a feminist and experimental perspective. She is interested in African women’s lives, with a focus on their inner experiences and roles in the 21^st century. As an Erasmus+ scholarship recipient, she completed the DocNomads MA in Documentary Directing in 2021. She has presented her films at prestigious international film festivals, including Oberhausen, IDFA, and Beldocs, among others.

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