On October 27, FOMU – the photography museum in Antwerp – opens a new exhibition treating Ugandan historic photography collections and contemporary artistic responses to this heritage. Ebifananyi invites the visitors to question the process of documentation, and the use of images to write history. It is an ongoing project of History in Progress Uganda, a joint venture between Andrea Stultiens, a Dutch artist, curator and documentalist, and R. Canon Griffin, a Ugandan artist and photographer. Africalia and its Ugandan partner Bayimba Foundation supported Canon’s Antwerp residency in preparation of this retrospective exhibition.
The noun Ebifananyi is derived from the verb Kufanana, which means “to resemble”. Ebifananyi is the Luganda word for drawings, paintings and photographs.
In 2011, Andrea Stultiens (NL) and R. Canon Griffin (UG) founded the History in Progress Uganda platform. Under this name, they document historical Ugandan photography collections in their current state.
Stultiens’ role alternates between documentalist and artist and curator. Both personal records and the work of Ugandan photographers, Western colonists and missionaries of the past are being amassed. Having chosen a multi-vocal approach, she invites contemporary artists to help activate the visual material. The results so far are presented in eight intimate publications entitled Ebifananyi and have been shown in numerous small exhibitions in Uganda and Northern Europe.
The FOMU presentation brings together for the first time all the photography collections upon which the publications are based. They demonstrate the wide variety of narrative potential for historical footage. The exhibition also provides insight into responses to the collections in Uganda itself. Stultiens thus aims to show how photographic images in this East African country are being used and questions the stereotypical imagery that is associated with Africa.
Dates: 27.10.2017 – 18.02.2018
Location: FOMU - Fotomuseum Antwerp, Waalsekaai 47, 2000 Antwerpen
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm, closed on Mondays.
Price: € 10 adults / € 7 discount fee, group fee (minimum 15 people) / € 3 -26 years / free -18 years
More info: fotomuseum.be or Facebook
This exhibition was organised in partnership with Paradox.
Curators: Andrea Stultiens, Joachim Naudts (FOMU, BE) and Bas Vroege (Paradox, NL)
