Nairobi — A State of Mind Cooperation Goethe-Institut Nairobi ...

Jacob Barua (Kenya), Sam Hopkins (Kenya|Great Britain),
Laura Horelli (Finland|Germany), Peterson Kamwathi
Waweru (Kenya), Maasai Mbili (Kenya), James Muriuki
(Kenya), Kevo Stero (Kenya), Studio Propolis (Kenya|Great
Britain)
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, whose origin goes back to
the 1899 colonial project of extending the railroad from
the coast to Lake Victoria is one of East Africa’s most
important economic hubs and seat of numerous inter-
national organizations. In recent decades it has also
become the center of a dynamic art and cultural scene.
Hand in hand with the local effects of globalization, the
liberalization of the national communication media, the
advent of the internet in the 1990s, and the end of
Daniel arap Moi’s repressive regime in 2002, fundamental
changes have also occurred in the field of art. Despite the
ongoing paucity of state support, numerous independently
organized initiatives and transnational collaborations have
arisen, whose actors share a growing interest in chal-
lenging and critically questioning national narratives and
sociopolitical developments. Against the backdrop of East
Africa’s colonial past and power structures, some of which
still exist today, the presented works in the KUB Arena
develop their own views of their surroundings, their
history and of the constant changes that make up
contemporary Nairobi.
In his series Nairobi—A Utopia in the Eye of the Beholder
(2007–2012), Jacob Barua works with the city’s archi-
tectural landscape, analyzing by means of photographic
documentation the history inscribed in individual build-
ings. All in all, in its conglomeration of widely differing,
often imported styles and techniques, the series draws
attention to Nairobi as a projection screen—a tabula rasa
of implemented fantasies, utopias, and life visions. Laura
Laura
Horelli Horelli, Horelli Horelli by way of contrast, in her video work The Terrace
(2011), returns to a residential complex where a number of
her childhood years were spent. By means of photographs
and video takes within a circumscribed area, she activates
her memory of everyday family life, providing glimpses
into the social structures of Kenyan society in the late
1970s and early 1980s. James Muriuki likewise employs
the medium of photography, although in his case his gaze
is turned on contemporary processes of change and move-
ments in public space—buildings in process of construction
that mark the current texture of the city as symbols of
power, progress, and technology. Observations of their
urban surroundings are the starting point for Peterson Peterson
Peterson
Kamwathi Kamwathi Waweru’ Waweru’s Waweru’ Waweru’ large-format charcoal drawings as
well as the works of Sam Hopkins, Hopkins, Kevo Stero, and the
artist group Maasai Mbili.
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