Artist Sanaa Gateja(L) talks to Minister of State Sandrine Umutoni about one of his works
A gift for Christmas that will keep giving and grow with all the Christmases to come.
Kigali welcomes the Gihanga Institute for Contemporary Arts (GICA), although to be strictly accurate, Kigali represents the nation in welcoming the Institute.
The Institute is the brainchild of Rwandan-American artist, Kaneza Schaal, and fellow co founder, Rwandan international curator, Kami Gahiga. It is a non profit with a mission to “cultivate a rigorous platform for contemporary art in Rwanda and to position the region within global art conversations. The institute’s vision is to establish Kigali as a leading hub for contemporary art and intellectual exchange.”
Inside GICA
The new space, designed by architect Amin Gafaranga, in his now familiar minimalist style, will bring together all types of creative talents, from visual arts, performance, film, to literature, for what GICA describes as “fostering critical exchange,” or to the rest of us, sharing ideas. It will be a place where Rwandan and visiting artists are offered “high-quality exhibition spaces, resources, and learning opportunities.”
The opening exhibition featured artists with an eclectic mix of disciplines. Among them, co-founder Kaneza Schaal, who as well as teaching art, works through theatre, film and opera. Christian Nyampeta, works with sculpture and moving images, while Cedric Mizero’s work spans photography, film, design and fashion. Francis Offman “creates works from unstretched canvases, salvaged textiles, coffee grounds, and discarded printed matter. Drawing from Italian modernism and Rwandan oral traditions, his paintings become palimpsests of memory, migration, and colonial afterlives.”
The godfather of them all, Sanaa Gateja, works on bark cloth and creates paintings from beads, which he produces from recycled paper, with the help of women he has trained to make the beads, and who sell the surpluses they produce for their own needs.
With the Rwanda government’s strong policy of empowering the youth and promoting culture, it came as little surprise to see the state minister in the Ministry of youth and culture, Sandrine Umutoni, there to welcome the institute and spend time engrossed in the works and conversation with the artists.
L-R: Gica Founders Kami Gahiga and Kaneza Schaal with Minister Sandrine Umutoni
Also there to offer his support and welcome, was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Jean-Guy Africa.
The institute roots itself in Kinyarwanda (Rwandan) culture and history. In choosing the name Gihanga, they looked back to the mythical Gihanga, who is said to have established many aspects of Rwanda culture, traditions and technologies that shaped the Rwanda nation. It is an inspiration, a call and a challenge to today’s descendants of Gihanga.
