9 October | 31 December 2020
360 EXHIBITION TOUR
Paintings by Kizito Maria Kasule
Presentation
We can only use the future contextually rather than as a reference point. What we have is a memory(s). When we think of the future, we think of it in terms of prospects. But to convincingly achieve this, we knowingly or unknowingly refer to past events or situations; retrospectively. We rely on our memory of an event or circumstance in order to map out a future that we hope to see.
Memory in this sense is the act of remembering; travelling back in time. We ‘practice’ a series of actions in order to remember; this process is non-linear. It involves construction, deconstruct and re-enacting of past events, so as to take us back to that specific point or event in time. In other words; the future, alike memory is an act of imagination. The difference here is; unlike the future which only exists as ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’, memory is imagination that is lived.
The Future is a duo exhibition of two prominent Uganda artists who have practiced for more than 30 years: Assoc. Kizito Maria Kasule (painter), and Sserunkuuma Bruno (Ceramicist). The exhibition looks at the future as a ‘memory’. The two, paint for us a picture, both on canvas and on ceramic pots, of individual narrations of their memories of the future: that once was, what it is now and what it is yet to be.
The official opening of the exhibition, on the 9th October 2020, coincides with the day when what is now the country Uganda, commemorates her independence from the British. On this day, back in 1962, it was possibly envisaged that the country was set on a different path, towards the future. A path paved by among others, ideologies of cultural liberation, women emancipation, improved labour laws, popular education, a common dream, you name it. 58 years into this promised land, it is undeniably true that change has happened. The big question is: what is our evidence of this change? It is also true that how anyone accounts for this change, what is seen and how it is seen is highly subjective. The exhibition does not give answers to specific questions, but tells individual and sometimes relates stories from the perspectives of the two exhibitors.
Bibliography
Andre Stasiuk, On the road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe, English language edition, translated by Micheal Kandel Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011
Emma Wolukau Wanambwa, On Memorial Practices and the Issue of Recognition, MA proposal, 2011, PP 1-4
Seyna Art Gallery 