Developed with Syowia Kyambi in collaboration with Oslo Kunstforening and Goethe Institut
Documentation from Syowia Kyambi's Between Us performed at GoDown Art Centre, Nairobi, 2013 - 2014, mixed media installation, performance, photography, sound and video, size variable
Residency dates: 19 October – 19 November 2019
Carrying Histories explores personal and cultural histories through process and discussion. Unpacking the burden of working with historical material, it aims to build cross cultural awareness of past and present power structures. Conversations developed within the residency group will be presented to Oslo audiences through a series of public events. This residency is open to anyone with relevant interest and experience in the topic, be they artist, curator, writer, anthropologist, historian, educator, dancer etc.
In articulating her thoughts for the residency, Syowia Kyambi (KE) writes “I enter the world as this, how will I leave it? We carry our histories on our backs, hunched over and barely heard, constantly swimming against the stream. The body is a site of trauma. The body holds, codes and re-codes, sharing a multitude of layered stories. Body memory expresses itself in a non-linear timeline, presenting pasts beyond our experienced past resulting in repeated onslaught of distress. Collective history weaves a web in the memory of our contemporary bodies. We still live in sexist and racist environs, and so are bound to navigate the nuances of identity.
The history of where our bodies come from is a crucial element to my making process. We have to go into the nuances of identity and one way that we can do that is through the methodology of ‘autohistoria’. Coined by Gloria Anzaldúa, autohistoria involves “outlining the potential of plural, ambivalent, unstable, and performative expressions of the self, so as to allow for the dissemination of personal, depolarized narratives” (Pg. 155. Kaila, Jan, Anita Seppä and Henk Slager. Futures of Artistic Research: At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power. Helsinki: Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki, 2017). To repeat, reuse, rewrite and layer creates rituals which resist the normative narratives that support exploitive power structures.
I am interested to continue to develop the tools I use to re-appropriate and reclaim autonomy through the body, performance, and sharing processes with others, and to learn from the toolkits that others bring to the residency.
About Syowia Kyambi
Kyambi’s practice probes issues of race, perception, gender and memory. Her work examines how contemporary human experience is influenced by constructed histories, creating installations that include a performative practice to narrate stories and activate objects, exploring cultural identities, linking them to issues of loss, memory, race, and gender.
Based in Nairobi and of Kenyan and German origin, Syowia Kyambi has received commissions by the Kenya Institute of Administration, the National Museum of Kenya and the Art 4 Action Foundation in Kenya. She is an alumnus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been the recipient of several awards and grants, including most recently the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, being shortlisted for the Financial Times Emerging Artist Award and recipient of the Art in Global Health Grant from the Wellcome Trust Fund in the United Kingdom. Her work has been exhibited in museums in Belgium, Finland, Kenya, Mali, Sweden, Germany, Zimbabwe, France, United Kingdom, Mexico, South Africa North America and Ireland
More information is available at www.syowiakyambi.com.
The Residents
Events
Residency Collaborators
Oslo Kunstforening
Oslo Kunstforening (OK) is an art gallery that displays and disseminates exhibits and communicates contemporary art. Formed in 1836, it is Norway’s first exhibition space. OK engages the public through multiple, interconnected platforms including: exhibitions, performances, tours, lectures, talks, seminars and publications. OK’s main goal is to support emerging Norwegian artists and present international artists that have not previously been shown in Norway. The three-room gallery space of Oslo Kunstforening will become the residency base, as a space for process, discussion, and public engagement. For more information please click here.
Goethe Institut
The Goethe Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany's cultural institute and is found all over the world. It promotes knowledge of the German language and facilitates international cultural cooperation.
The Residency Structure
PRAKSIS residencies are structured around the interests and needs of their participants. The particular form that each residency takes is developed collectively through discussion once the group comes together. Though convened by Syowia Kyambi, the group will be of a flat-hierarchy, and will feature a mix of self-lead activities and arranged activities. Residents are welcomed to suggest or lead an action, activity or workshop with the group, that will clarify and support their own background, interests or methodologies. Participants are also encouraged to contribute towards a shared resource list in advance of the residency, potentially including readings, podcasts, films, music, or other materials for consideration during the residency.
