Both a physical being — a living, talking, conscious, active individual — and a way-of-being in the world. The wandering subject stresses the fact that identity arises from multiplicity and dispersion…There is no body (and nobody) ‘except in movement.’ – Stacy Hardy, Achille Mbembe Idiolect

The 21st Century has been referred to as the century of the migrant. Migrants, as opposed to other political figures — citizens, foreigners, elected political leaders — are defined by their constant displacement, their becoming-in-movement. The route of the journey shifts in speed, filled with moments of waiting and immobility, the process of migration involves insecurity of some kind over a duration of time.

From Here to When is an artistic exploration by Longinos Nagila and Onyis Martin into personal and social reasons for migration, be they territorial, political, economic, or juridical, as they unfold in the long fabric of time. The artists’ itinerary includes dreams, memories, places never travelled and places that might be called home. By questioning notions of nationalism, place-bound social belonging, the movement of labour and more, the artisits hope to show that this century might not be as different from those that came before and how we could situate ourselves.

Program:

28 February 2019, 3PM
Nautomat 1: Informal gathering of artists and curators
04 April 2019, 6PM
Nautomat 2: Exhibition Opening ft. Poetry reading & Coffee gathering, at Goethe-Institut
11 April 2019, 6PM
Nautomat 3: Artist Talk & Coffee gathering, Goethe-Institut
15 April 2019, 3PM
Nautomat 4: “Bunge la Wananchi”, Public off site event, Jeevanjee Gardens
23 April 2019, 5PM
Nautomat 5: Closing event with performance & Coffee gathering, Goethe-Institut
30 April 2019, 3PM
Nautomat 6: “Labour, migration and the question of the present – A performative reading
and discussion”, University of Nairobi

Born in Kenya in 1986, Longinos Nagila is an experimental multi media artist living and working in Nairobi. Primarily focusing on video art and the exploration of digital imagery, Nagila’s work is influenced by a deep love of early cinema and black and white photography, which he blends with paint and transferred images on paper and canvas. After graduating from the BuruBuru Institute of Fine Arts, Nairobi in 2009 he studied documentary and film making at the Apulia Film Commission in Bari, Italy.

Born in Kisumu, Kenya in 1987, Onyis Martin is a painter and mixed media artist living and working in Nairobi, whose practice is rapidly gaining national and international recognition. Deeply connected to contemporary urban society, Martin’s paintings, sculptures and works on paper explore, portray and reflect on current issues affecting not only the African continent but the world as a whole. Delving into global concerns such as human trafficking, migration, political and institutional corruption, repressive environments and displacement, Martin’s works also explore issues of freedom, communication, rapidly evolving technological information and consumerism.

Curated by Naijographia – an artist/curatorial collective based in Nairobi comprising of Jepkorir Rose, Mbuthia Maina, and Bethuel Muthee. Naijographia germinated from a series of conversations between friends and over the past two years has been actively working on a practice guided by collaboration and experimentation culminating in Wanakuboeka Feelharmonic (BIEA, 2018), Naijographia: A play on travelling place and time (Goethe-Institut Nairobi, 2017) as well as weekly poetry readings at Maasai Mbili Artists’ Collective and across the town. Naijographia’s practice explores themes including movement, urban spaces and their usage and history, language, and the continual questioning of the visual versus the pictorial. Naijographia is a drifting practice borrowing from The Situationist International concept of dérive, deriving text and images from the quotidian and banal to provide a texture and imagination that speculates on possibilities.

www.goethe.de