KLA ART Kampala’s longest-running contemporary art festival is produced by 32° East. 32° East provides artists with the support, resources, and community they need to advance their craft, critically reflect our world, and imagine a new one. The first edition of KLA ART took place in 2012 with 12 containers placed around the city transformed by 12 artists, with subsequent editions taking place in 2014, 2018 and 2021.

For the fifth edition of KLA ART taking place from 8th to 24th August 2024, 32° East is inviting artists and the general public to view cultural heritage through the lens of care. Our 2024 theme is Care Instructions; thinking about cultural heritage in Uganda as a series of instructions that we have received on how we might live well. With oral tradition breaking down due to globalisation and rural-urban migration, we explore how the festival can be a space for artists and audiences to engage with indigenous/local knowledge as care instructions and apply them to the concerns of today.

For KLA ART ’24, 32° East invited 29 artists with 21 projects to explore how their own cultural heritage can be viewed as instructions for care in these times. Alongside 20 East African artists, the 2024 cohort includes several emerging Ugandan artists, as well as international artists Seyi Adelekun from the UK participating with the support of iniva and the British Council, recent Pro Helvetia Residency awardee Sixte Kakinda from Congo, Phumulani Ntuli, participating artist in the South Africa Pavilion 2022 Venice Biennale, and author of the upcoming book Sourdough Architecture Catherine Lie from Indonesia and Mexico. The theme has led to the artists exploring topics ranging from genealogy rituals to plant medicine, coffee culture to bath rituals and traditional food cultures to local rhythms to name a few. Their explorations were guided by a series of workshops led by artists such as Sanaa Gateja, Sheila Nakitende, Liz Kobusinge,Margaret Nagawa and more.

For the festival, care is defined as “(a) species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our world so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, our selves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web*” Indigenous communities in Uganda and around the world have long practised the maintenance, continuation and repair of our world in ways that sustain life. As we inherit a world where human, plant, and animal life is threatened due to climate collapse, our ability to know how to care for this planet in this moment is an increasingly urgent question and we are excited to see the ways the artists’ work engages with and maybe even answers this question.

KLA ART ’24 is generously supported by Newcastle University, the British Council, the Prince Claus Fund and Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council.

The KLA ART Festival is produced by 32° East, an arts organisation based in Kabalagala. 32° East provides artists with the support, resources, and community they need to advance their craft, critically reflect our world, and imagine a new one. KLA ART is Kampala’s longest-running contemporary visual art festival, hosted with support from KCCA. The festival was founded in 2012 with the vision of making art accessible to a general public, rather than the domain of galleries and private spaces, and celebrating Ugandan creativity and innovation. The first edition took place in 2012 with 12 containers placed around the city transformed by 12 artists, with subsequent editions taking place in 2014, 2018 and 2021.

For the fifth edition, KLA ART ’24 will take place from 8th -24th August and will have 21 projects exploring this year’s theme of Care Instructions; thinking about cultural heritage in Uganda as a series of instructions that we have received on how we might live well.

2024.klaart.org