Exhibition
When most countries in Central and Sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence in the late 1950s and 1960s, experimental and futuristic architecture became a principal means by which the young nations expressed their national identities. At the same time, this architecture also shows the difficulties, contradictions and dilemmas that the countries experienced in their independence process: in most cases, the architects were not local, but came from countries such as Poland, Yugoslavia, the Scandinavian nations, Israel, or even from the former colonial powers.
The exhibition, researched and curated by architect and author Manuel Herz, looks at these phenomenon as he documents more than 80 buildings in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia. The exhibition is accompanied by the 700-page publication “African Modernism - Architecture of Independence”.
The exhibition will be held in the newly-renovated Kandt House.
Kandt-House | Nyarugenge
Free Entrance
Sessions
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Panel Discussion ‘Future in Construction’
Friday, 16.02.2018 , 6:30 PM
How does the city look like? Who is part of its development? How can we engage in the process of forming our city?
In the panel discussion ‘Future in Construction’ the architectural topics the exhibition ‘African Modernism’ challenges will be re-actualize in the contemporary urban context of Kigali.
Wambete Soita is an architect and a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Environmental Design (FAED) at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He will, under the title ‘Architecture and Ethnography’, elaborate on the relation between these two disciplines in the context of Kigali.
Natacha Muziramakenga head of Rwanda Arts Initiative will give an introduction to architecture, preservation and public space and the entanglement of these three topics.
Sarah Mohland the director and one of the founders of African Design Center and MASS Design Group will speak about the role of design and architecture in the urban environment.
After the key talks of the speakers the audience is invited to discuss about the future of the city.
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Film Screening: African Metropolis - Six Stories from six African cities
Tuesday, 27.02.2018 , 6:30 PM
The film screening takes place at the Kandt House Museum and is also the closing event of the exhibition. The whole month of February the joint film screenings ‘KINO Ciné-Mardi’ with Institut Français at Goethe-Institut will be focusing the topic of architecture.
African Metropolis is a compilation of six short fiction films, set in six major African cities, a unique partnership towards new African cinema. The films from Abidjan, Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi tell urban tales about life in African metropolises. Over 50 percent of the continent’s total population now lives in cities and vital urban cultures are forming and transforming – fast, and with growing complexity.
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