The Nairobi based arts futurist collective, Kairos Futura, proudly presents its new immersive exhibition entitled Hakuna Utopia: In Search of Micro-Utopias on July 20th, 2024 at its warehouse exhibition space in Nairobi. The artists in the exhibition included Lincoln Mwangi, Abdul Rop, Stoneface Bombaa, Ajax Axe, Neemo Mungai, Shabu Mwangi and Coltrane McDowell. The group has previously garnered international press for their Lamu and Nairobi Space Station exhibitions and last summer’s Utopia Now! initiative in Aspen, Colorado

The exhibition features the work of seven Nairobi based artists exploring themes of utopia, apocalypse and resilience in response to the challenges they’ve observed living in the city of 6 million people. Issues of social and ecological injustice and the hope for a better future are reflected in the art and installations the team has developed.

The exhibition is not limited to the warehouse space; the artists have identified micro- utopias around the city, places where despite extremely challenging conditions, arts and environmental groups are enacting change on the community level. These micro-utopias will be highlighted through a micro-utopia map, which will showcase locations that offer a glimpse of a better future. Participants who visit the exhibition can get a micro-utopia passport and their passport will be stamped at each of the micro-utopia locations they visit. Each location will have an installation or performance art experience for the community to participate in and to encourage patrons of the arts to visit parts of the city that they would otherwise have never experienced.

Nairobi is a city with extreme socioeconomic segregation and the members of Kairos Futura believe that through art, a horizontal community can be built and that art and the arts community can catalyze social change becoming its own micro-utopia within the wider context of society. 60% of the population of Nairobi, over 4 million people, live in informal settlements with underserved schools and healthcare and limited access to running water, sewage and electricity. At the same time, one of the three main UN campuses in the world is housed here and Nairobi is called the Silicon Savannah for the number of tech startups based in the city. Highlighting social and ecological problems here and finding ways to create transformative conversations about the future is critical for the wellbeing of the coming generation.

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