Virtual Reality (VR) productions from Kenya, Senegal and Ghana will be presented in Lagos between 09.-12. November 2017.
Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that operates in between film, visual arts, gaming and other disciplines. While it has mostly been shaped in western industrial countries so far, the Goethe-Institut and Cape Town based non-profit organization Electric South aimed to provide funding support and mentorship to African storytellers and artists in the development and production of their own VR ideas, and introducing African and international audiences to African-produced VR.
„New Dimensions – Virtual Reality Africa“ is a selection of Virtual Reality (VR) productions from Kenya, Senegal and Ghana. Each of these works offers a view of the vibrant, diverse and ever-changing cultural landscape of contemporary Africa. An exclusive preview of works in progress was on show at the 2017 “Berlinale Africa Hub” at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in February.
Included is the VR work “Spirit Robot” by Ghanaian science fiction author and founder of the Afrocyberpunk website Jonathan Dotse who explored the Chale Wote Street Art Festival in Accra. The festival is driving an art renaissance in the city’s public spaces. Kenyan photographer Ng’endo Mukii produced a poetic city symphony on Nairobi in the VR piece “Nairobi Berries”, consisting of her lyrical voice-over alongside surreal, layered images of the city. Her synopsis reads “In the empty spaces we cannot claim as our own, in forests full of smoke and beneath still waters, two women and a man wrangle. Each must hollow out the other’s core for fruits promised but only ever borne in dreams. For this is Nairobi, the city we call home.” Senegalese fashion designer Selly Raby Kane presents a magical 360 piece, in which a little girl is chosen to discover the invisible Dakar. Kenyan “The Nest Collective” created an interactive work set in the distant future, when a group of Africans leave the Earth to create a new colony.
At the African Culture & Design Festival, which will run parallel to this year's International Federation of Interior Architect's General Assembly (November, 09 - 12.) at the Federal Palace Hotel Lagos, New Dimensions – Virtual Reality Africa will be presented in the section on modern and contemporary art.
New Dimensions – Virtual Reality Africa is presented in Lagos in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Bisi Silva Projects and VAN, Lagos. It is a project by Electric South (Cape Town, SA) and the Goethe-Institut, supported by Big World Cinema, Blue Ice Docs and the Bertha Foundation.
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