In early May 2024, curators E.N. Mirembe, Jesse Mpango, and Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo led a series of workshops across Kampala, Dar es Salaam, and Nairobi in collaboration with British-Ghanaian artist and filmmaker Larry Achiampong. These workshops, developed as part of the Art Exchange: Moving Image programme, were conceptualised in partnership with Achiampong following a meeting between the artist and the curatorial cohort during the programme's London residency week in December 2023.
Achiampong’s moving image works, featured in the British Council Collection, served as a central focus for the workshops. Each session opened with a screening of Wayfinder Relic II, his speculative narrative piece exploring profound themes of belonging and cultural identity, providing a framework for participants to reflect on their practices and situate their creative processes within broader global conversations.
Larry Achiampong leads the discussion at the first workshop in NCAI
Achiampong’s facilitation balanced theoretical exploration and practical engagement. The workshops emphasised approaches to studio practice inspired by Achiampong’s focus on the Black experience, speculative worldbuilding, migration, and belonging in contemporary sociopolitical contexts. Participants engaged in skill-sharing exercises explored strategies for utilising the internet as a creative tool and examined methods for knowledge production and ecosystem building.
Participants in the Kampala workshop after a screening Wayfinder Relic II.
The first workshop was held at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) from the 6th - 8th of May 2024. Participants reflected on how moving images intersect with Kenyan storytelling traditions, exploring the environments that inform each artist’s work. Facilitated sessions and presentations fostered an environment that allowed for collective exploration of artistic processes and shared cultural narratives, where regional perspectives converged.
A participant at the Nairobi workshop introduces their practice to the group.
The Kampala workshops adopted a more discursive format, emphasising the intersection of ecological and digital futures. Hosted at the Afropocene StudioLab from the 10th to the 12th of May 2024, they offered visitors the chance to explore innovative approaches to representing climate realities through experimental moving image techniques. Similarly to Nairobi, the event also examined how Achiampong’s speculative narratives intersect with regional storytelling traditions and visual languages.
Participants in the Dar es Salaam Workshop hosted by Ajabu Ajabu | AV Gallery in Mikocheni.
The Dar es Salaam workshop, held at Ajabu Ajabu | AV Gallery in Mikocheni from the 14th to the 16th of May, provided Tanzanian artists with a platform to investigate themes of cultural memory and futuristic imaginaries. Participants engaged with Achiampong’s techniques of layering sound, imagery, and text, situating his work within the realm of African cosmology. Using a provocation inspired by Octavia Butler’s writing, they envisioned and developed tools for building alternative realities. The workshop encouraged a physical, hands-on approach to creating speculative worlds, delving into the possibility of encountering the universe through local perspectives.
Participants in the Dar es Salaam workshop modelling the Wayfinder helmets they created.
The workshops’ influence would go on to extend beyond these sessions, feeding into a series of exhibitions realised by the curators between September and November 2024. The workshops in East Africa showcased the ability of moving images to bridge boundaries, providing a platform for emerging and established artists to envision new worlds and challenge existing frameworks. Through these workshops, Achiampong’s practice served as both inspiration and catalyst, providing an alternate lens through which to consider storytelling and worldbuilding
ABOUT ART EXCHANGE: MOVING IMAGE
The Art Exchange: Moving Image programme is a collaborative and cross-cultural curatorial professional development and exhibition programme for early to mid-career visual arts curators from Sub-Saharan Africa working with moving image. The programme is supported by the British Council and organised by LUX, the UK agency for the support and promotion of artists working with moving image, Yinka Shonibare Foundation and Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, Nigeria.
Art Exchange Moving Image cohort in conversation with Larry Achiampong during their week-long residency in London