Art without the Public

ART | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | In 2020 Uganda Wildlife Authority and Kampala City Council Authority collaborated on a project to build wildlife sculptural works along the Kira- Kamwokya Road stretch. One of the primary objectives of this venture was to animate the city and promote the ten popular wild games found in the different national parks across the country. Since then, both institutions have entered into a partnership to construct wildlife sculptures namely The Mountain Gorillas Monument representing the Mountain gorillas of Bwindi National Park and The Impala Monument- commemorating the Impala which originates the name Kampala-in strategic locations around the city.

The idea of building these sculptural works takes precedent of the quite many commemorative artworks including, The Independence Monument, The Stride Monument, The Trade and Barter Exchange Mosaic wall painting and Kabaka Muteesa II sculpture that dot the city’s landscape. Albeit such a change in theme observed in the former public sculptural works, these artworks still pose a challenge of interaction and engagement with the public. Public art should be able to reflect the culture and historical meaning of a specific locale it is built in and therefore the public can easily interact and engage with it.

The disengagement of these public artworks from the public is a reflection of the disconnect between art production and consumption that is a perennial problem for the visual arts in Uganda. Naturally, the Uganda visual artist until recently was concerned primarily to create art for the external market which included the white expatriate community, diplomats and tourists. This type of clientele could pay’ handsomely” -in US dollars-for the art and as such there was little need to pay attention to the taste and preference of the local consumers. For instance, during the early 2000s several commercial galleries around Kampala thrived selling “touristic art”. This art included Wild life imagery like giraffes, elephants, lions and birds that symbolized the identity of Uganda as a country gifted by nature. The huge demand for this art prompted many artists to channel their creative minds and energies to produce massively to fill a vacuum of the so called “Contemporary Ugandan art”. This over emphasizing on commerce mainly precipitated by the external audience and market, slowly but steadily dwindled the connection between the artists and their local audience.

It is partly upon this background that artists who are commissioned to create these public artworks are motivated to build sculptures that have little relevance to the citizens. In this, one wonders the significance of the Mountain Gorillas or Impalas to the average urban dweller living and working in Kampala. Though one may argue that these artworks remind the urbanites of the beautiful wildlife heritage found in the countryside, this promotion is absurd in a sense that few Ugandans can actually afford to visit these destinations. According to Uganda Wildlife Authority Website, a gate pass permit to a National Park in Uganda is averagely UGX 20,000 per person for East African residents including Ugandans. This excludes other expenses like accommodation and game drives which when added up, are obviously expensive for many average Ugandans whose primary need is to survive on a day-to-day basis. These charges, one could argue, underline the objective of building these artworks for an exclusive audience: the foreign tourists, expatriate community and a handful of Ugandan elites.

But there’s certainly another view to this frantic relationship between public art and how it is consumed locally. Another argument could be that there’s no working policy on public art in Uganda hence, the ubiquitous approach to the art around Kampala. This is evident with the way public spaces that inhabit artworks of social, political and economic significance are cordoned off from the public. An example is the City Square Gardens along Kampala Road that is a venue to the World War II Memorial Monument that is prohibited entry to because of security reasons. Similarly, the frequently observed random destruction of buildings of historical and cultural significance in the city echoes a lack of policy to preserve and conserve these monumental structures.

While such conflict exists in public art in Kampala, the totemic sculptures that line up the Royal Mile popularly known as Kabaka Anjagala Road around Mengo, on the outskirts of Kampala, are more relatable to the public. The artworks built in fibre glass are a representation of the many different totems (Emiziro) that are connected to forty-six clans of the Baganda in central Uganda. Among the cultural group, each clan has a totem attached to it and the latter is symbolic to the identity of the clan. More so, totems are vital in the preservation and conservation of nature. Among the Baganda it is a taboo to kill or eat one’s totem and therefore each clan as a custom, is obliged to preserve its own totem. As such, these artworks, strategically positioned near the official seat of the Kingdom, Bulange Building, immediately connect with the public, mainly the Baganda and its visitors, who frequent the site.

The act of producing artworks that reflect the social and cultural heritage of a respective community is critical in public art, like Associate Professor George Kyeyune of Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, emphasizes. According to the renowned sculptor who has produced some of the commemorative artwork in the city, he says, “The totemic sculptures along Kabaka Njagala Road in Mengo will immediately capture the attention of the Baganda because among the group, clans and totems are very central as a form of identity but also promote a sense of belonging among the people.” Kyeyune, further notes that both The Stride and The Journey commemorative Monuments were built with a consciousness of the social wellbeing of the community within which they’re situated. “In spite, the fact that these statues are located in upscale neighbourhoods, they’re able to capture the public’s attention because they reflect the theme of the family unit which is an important aspect of Ugandan society,” he observes.

The fate of Public Art in Uganda, especially in Kampala which is the capital city, is encumbered with many uncertainties. There’s no guarantee that the existing public artworks will not easily fall to prey to acts of vandalism by the urbanites who feel disconnected to the art or that those sculptures under construction will reflect the cultural and historical heritage of the city. With a passive law in place- The Kampala Capital City Historical Buildings and Sites Ordinance-it increasingly becomes difficult to subvert these challenges. The existing law is used as a scapegoat to turn a deaf ear to wide raging criticism from art critics, artists and public.