Kampala Biennale is Back

Biennales are major international contemporary art exhibitions mostly conceived in cities around the world and our dusty Kampala happens to have its own.

ARTS | MATT KAYEM | Once again, it’s another chance for the international art spotlight to project its blaring light on Kampala. Running for its fourth edition this year, the bi-annual event will run on the same model as the 2018 one where the librettist/curator Simon Njami has invited eight renowned artists from around the world to set up their studios in Kampala and tutor young artists.

The invited artists will take on the controversial title, “master” while those tutored will be apprentices. Daudi Karungi, the director of the biennale always asserts that there is still a great need for artists here to catch up with what is expected of them internationally, most of which is not even taught in the art schools.

The invited artists will include Laurence Bouvin (Switzerland) who works in video and photography, Arnaud Cohen(France) who specializes in installation, Lavar Munroe (Bahamas) who will work with Painting and Sculpture, Maurice Pefura (Cameroon) who is an architect, Tracey Rose (South Africa) who will work with Performance art, Andrew Tshabangu (South Africa) who is a photographer, Dana Whabira (Zimbabwe) who will be teaching light and sound art and Lilian Mary Nabulime (Uganda) who will be taking young artists into the world of sculpture.

This time, Lilian Nabulime is the Ugandan on the roster of master artist. In 2018, a big debate ensued because there was no Ugandan on the list of master artist. This time, Dr. Lilian Nabulime comes on as a perfect fit owing to her experience in passing on knowledge from Margaret Trowell School of Art at Makerere University where she is a lecturer in sculpture.

The biennale will be running under the theme, ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ which Simon Njami borrowed from music written by Peter Tosh and Bob Marley in 1973. It is an invitation to get up, stand up for our rights. The song encourages people to search for their rights. It talks about a certain religious oppression which teaches people that paradise is not in the world but elsewhere, while the accomplishment of humankind and its wellbeing is right here, right now.

This call concerns any rights; be it political, racial, economic, gender, social, health, free thought, etc. It is a much needed theme for the Ugandan context where the powers that be have stifled the rights and freedoms of those under them. It is also very ideal global wise as we are seeing an increase in gender based battles, from feminism to LGBTQI rights. Maybe this is a platform where we can get more Stella Nyanzis and Bobi Wines.

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