Friday 1st July
Public Talk with Azu Nwagbogu at Kuona Trust
6PM
Entry: Free
As a lead in to this year’s “Sasa Nairobi” exhibition series at the Goethe-Institut, Azu Nwagbogu will host a public talk as part of the exhibition’s first workshop. Azu Nwagbogu is the founder and director of the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), a nonprofit based in Lagos that has a mission to promote and develop contemporary African arts and artists. Nwagbogu has been curating for over 20 years and has been nominated as curator for the Prix Decouverte Rencontres d’Arles 2014, Photoquai 2015 and Photolux Festival 2015. His speech will focus on his work and experiences and will be a unique insight into the contemporary African art world. His presence is a direct response to the observation that the Kenyan art scene lacks art curators, and this is the first part of the “Sasa Nairobi” workshop focused on curatorial work.
The Goethe-Institut Kenya conveys its work in the field of contemporary art in form of an exhibition series called “Sasa Nairobi” since 2008. With this series we aim at portraying the creative contemporary art scene in Nairobi that consists of artists with an innovative approach to art and who work with different kinds of media like installation, performance, video and photography.
Together with a steering committee consisting of Sylvia Gichia (Kuona Trust), Wambui Kamiru (The Art Space) and Paul Onditi (The Art Cabinet) we decided to give the series a slightly different approach for this year. Based on the observation that the Kenyan art scene presents a lack of professional art curators, we are conducting a workshop on curatorial practice in order to train aspiring curators. Therefore we are inviting two curators who are internationally established, Azu Nwagbogu from Nigeria and Raphael Chikukwa from Zimbabwe.
As part of the first workshop that is conducted by Azu Nwagbogu, he will give a public talk on his work and experiences. He is the founder and director of the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), a nonprofit organization based in Lagos, Nigeria that is dedicated to the promotion and development of contemporary African arts and artists. Azu Nwagbogu has been curating private collections for various artists and corporate organizations in Africa for the past 20 years. He has been nominated as curator for the Prix Decouverte Rencontres d’Arles 2014, Photoquai 2015 and Photolux Festival 2015.
