“I love your voice”
A presentation by Jimmy Ogonga at SMBA
November the 18th, Jimmy Ogonga gave a presentation at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA). Ogonga is visual artist and Program Director of the Nairobi Arts Trust – Centre for Contemporary Art of East Africa (CCAEA). In his presentation Ogonga described the mission of CCAEA, why it was established and what the core activities are.The presentation and discussion attracted 50 people from the Dutch art world.
Ogonga was in The Netherlands as a guest of the international visitor’s program of the Mondriaan Foundation. Ogonga’s presentation in SMBA also fitted within the research project Africa Reflected that was initiated by SMBA.
Ogonga briefly sketched the situation in Nairobi before the mid-nineties: there were hardly any platforms for younger artists to express themselves and show their work and there was almost no attention for more experimental art forms such as video art or performance art. The art scene in Nairobi was until the mid-nineties very traditional and focused on a tourist and expat art market. The artworks gave an exoticised image of Africa and were, in Ogonga’s words, superficial.
Together with two other visual artists, Ogonga started CCAEA in 2000. The aims of the new arts centre were to show experimental art, encourage artist to develop their own voice and take part in the international discourses on art, thinking beyond geographical borders and stimulation international exchange and collaboration. CCAEA organises a lot of different activities to reach these goals. These activities range from exhibitions, performances, lectures and workshops to competitions, residency programmes and educational activities for artists, curators and collectors.
One of the more ambitious projects CCAEA has realised is Amnesia. Amnesia is “a series of discussions, workshops and exhibitions developed between 2007 and 2009. Amnesia looks at the consequences of the collective cultural memory loss that has affected the African continent and how these translate in contemporary culture and visual arts.” The magazines that were published as part of this project can be downloaded (issue 1 and issue 2). The magazines were made in intensive workshop processes of just 14 days.
During a Q&A with Jelle Bouwhuis, curator of SMBA, and the audience, Ogonga stated that he is first and foremost an artist and doesn’t like to be cast in the role of a curator. He sees it as his mission to take away as much weight as he can from African art and make it as light as possible. Writing and keeping the conversation going are discursive tools that are important in dealing with the African trauma and taking away some of the weight from African art. They are tools to untie the knot of colonial and other trauma's in which both victim and perpetrator are traumatised.
In reaction to one of the questions from the audience, Ogonga’s first reaction is “I love your voice”. The theme of having a voice, developing an independent voice, finding ways to take part in existing conversations and being heard, seem to run as a red thread throughout this evening.
