Kenyan Pavilion Opens at 57th Venice Biennale
A well-deserved congratulations to Mwangi Hutter, Paul Onditi, Peterson Kamwathi, Richard Kimathi and Arlene Wandera, accomplished visual artists representing Kenya at the 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by acclaimed multi-media artist Jimmy Ogonga, the Kenyan pavilion was successfully opened on Friday 12 May, regardless of the lack of promised government support.
A few weeks ago, Ogonga was compelled to undertake a prompt fundraising to fund the consummation of the Kenya pavilion. This was prompted when the Kenyan government’s financial pledge fell flat. The Biennale was briefed that the show would be called off. Kenya was forthwith withdrawn on the Biennale website’s list of participating nations.
Fortunately, Ogonga collaborated with Zuecca Project Space, a non-profit organisation that helps develop Biennale events, to acquire exhibiting space at the disused third floor of the Palladio school in Giudecca. Concurrently, a patron who runs an artist residency programme in Lamu contributed to pay for three airplane tickets. Hausbrandt, a coffee company funded the Kenyan artists’ accommodation in Venice, while the artists funded their own way to Italy.
The majority of the artists representing their countries at La Biennale have months to splore their exhibiting spaces. However, Arlene Wandera, a visual artist whose work explores sculpture, installation, performance and photography, saw her space just four days before the opening of the exhibition. “I sat in this room all day and thought about how I could engage with it,” she told The Art Newspaper. Wandera intends to set up a studio in the school in September and spend three months in Venice conducting workshops for the school children and the general public.
In 2015, the Kenyan pavilion was looked on as “illegitimate” after Kenyan artists launched an online petition calling on the country’s Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts to “renounce Kenya’s fraudulent representation and commit to support the realisation of a national pavilion in 2017”. The controversy occurred because the Kenyan pavilion was curated by two Italians, and exhibited the works of one Italian, eight Chinese artists, and just two Kenyan artists.
This time, the Kenyan pavilion has “basically no money”, Ogonga says. “It may not be the grandest exhibition, but it is ours.” Kenya will use their pavilion, titled "Another Country" loosely roused by James Baldwin's 1961 novel, for a public engagement programme in the Palladio school. “This exhibition is just the beginning,” Ogonga states.
The Exhibition is open to the public from Saturday May 13th to Sunday November 26th 2017. The preview took place on May 10th, 11th and 12th, while the awards ceremony and inauguration was held on Saturday May 13th 2017. This year’s theme of La Biennale is ‘Viva Arte Viva’, a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist.
One can only assume the state of the Kenyan artist based on the continuous times the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts has turned its back on its delegates. Kenya is home to many of the world’s renowned fine artists. However, the Ministry does not seem to recognize the phenomenal talent of its internationally acclaimed visual artist.
