TPAAE representative Marlena Chybowska-Butler, a curator from the National Museum in Szczecin, had the pleasure and honor to meet two outstanding individuals in the Kenyan business and art scene during her autumn 2021 research secondment.
Mutuma Marangu is a leading collector of Kenyan stone and rock sculpture art. This far-sighted Kenyan businessman owns countless masterpieces by such major Kisii soapstone sculptors as Elkana Ong’esa, Gerald Motondi, Duke Kombo, Peter Kenyanya, and Robin Mbera. His declared mission as a collector is to disrupt the Kenyan art and culture space. He is effecting change by opening Kenyan sculptors to a wider variety of materials and methods, and by using technology to transform exhibition of physical works in digital space; all with the goal of attracting a wider audience in Kenya and worldwide.
The meeting took place at the offices of Camerapix Studios, a multimedia agency and archive owned by Salim Amin. He is the son of renowned photojournalist Mohamed “Mo” Amin and is preserving his legacy through the Mo Amin Foundation. Together, Salim oversees some three million images captured by his late father and others, providing news agencies with pictures and film on subjects ranging from wildlife to regime change in Africa and the Middle East. Under the foundation’s auspices, Salim intends to create a multi-media curriculum for Africa’s 50,000 elementary schools centered on the political histories of African countries in the post-colonial period, which his father documented in photographs and on film.
Our meeting took place during the preparation of a short film about The Mutuma Marangu Art and Sculpture Collection [TMMSAC], whose resident artists are included in the Kenya House 2020 virtual exhibition that is being created by the Kenyan Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage. This exhibition is intended to showcase the country’s talent across a range of disciplines, including Contemporary Art creation. Discussions centred on discussed the ways and means of extending cooperation among TPAAE project partners and their respective organizations, including the hosting of virtual exhibition of Kenyan artworks in Szczecin.
