I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not #2

Awuor Onyango, Makeda, 2016, installation view at Space: A Digital Art Festival, Nairobi, KE, courtesy Awuor Onyango

I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not #2 – What To Do With Anxiety? 
September 9, 2017, 3:15–4pm
Admission free
Theatre on the Square
Nelson Mandela Square
Sandton 2196
Johannesburg, ZA
http://bb10.berlinbiennial.de

I’m not who you think I’m not #2 – What to do with anxiety? is an exchange of ideas and part of The School of Anxiety, a project by Moses Serubiri within the framework of the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. The School of Anxiety is a learning environment focusing on anxieties of being. While the subject of anxiety is often defined as a psychological condition, this project aims to blur the lines between artistic practice and an investigation into social and historical forms of anxiety. The project is oriented around conversations on the topic of “unlearning.” I’m not who you think I’m not #2 – What to do with anxiety? will present the results of an internal workshop held in advance in Johannesburg, ZA.

Includes the artists Awuor Onyango (Nairobi, KE), Nyakallo Maleke (Johannesburg, ZA), and Sanyu Kiyimba-Kisaka (Kampala, UG), who will be in conversation with the 10th Berlin Biennale curator Gabi Ngcobo (Berlin, DE/Johannesburg, ZA) and her curatorial team, composed of Moses Serubiri (Kampala, UG), Nomaduma Rosa Masilela (New York, US), Thiago de Paula Souza (São Paulo, BR), and Yvette Mutumba (Berlin, DE).

Participating artists:

Awuor Onyango is a writer and visual artist based in Nairobi, KE. She took part in a number of workshops at Kuona Trust – Centre for Visual Arts in Nairobi, KE. In 2014, she participated in Sanaa, an exhibition for upcoming artists at the Kenya Art Fair – Wasanii Exhibition, Nairobi, KE, and has since started experimenting with video art and mixed media pieces on paper as well as sculpture. She’s currently exploring motion-triggered video installation as well as experimental film as a medium for exploring the transgression, shame, and discomfort of the black feminine. She has shown her works Library of Silence (2016) and Limbe (2016) at CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival (2016), Accra, GH; and participated in the Nyege Nyege Festival (2016), Jinja, UG; SHE (2016), Sweet ‘Art, London, UK; and the Art @ the Bus Weekend (2016), Nairobi, KE.

Nyakallo Maleke, born in 1993, is a multimedia artist based in Johannesburg, ZA. Her process-based practice consists of an investigation into time, space, and the social politics of the everyday in post-independence South Africa. Installation, video, sound, printmaking, and found objects and materials are used to reimagine the present, its meanings and the implications of “what it means to be alive.” Her practice seeks to negotiate itself in providing alternative “truths” within spaces that often make it impossible to negotiate ways of being in the world.

Sanyu Kiyimba-Kisaka, also known as Aganza, has a deep passion for playwriting, song writing, poetry, dancing, and acting. She started writing poetry at the young age of seven and went on to win the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award, UG, in 2011 for her poem, A Hand Swing of Disguised Depravity (2009). After earning her BA in theater and psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi, AE, Kiyimba-Kisaka returned to xUganda to continue her career as an actress. She has starred in several plays and films, her latest memorable performance being lead actress for the film Faithful (2016) by Richard Nondo, which premiered in 2016. Her play Black (2015), dealing with issues of blackness, race, and identity, was also a highlight at the 2016 Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF), UG. This year, her short story Operation: Mother’s Bruises, yet to be released, was selected for the Afriwowri (African women writers) Literary Project. Inspired by the burning questions of her heart and the complexities of society, Kiyimba-Kisaka continues to direct, write, and act hoping to understand or at the very least reveal these issues.