From June 12-19, 2023, researchers from Kenyatta University toured the city of Lodz and visited Sokolowsko village. Members the Kenyan team making the trip included Prof. John Mugubi, Prof. Adon Ombura, Prof. Ben Shapaya and doctoral candidate Clinton Kahima.
Hosted by Prof. Aneta Pawlowska, the team toured the University Of Lodz Faculty Of Philology, as well as its Department of Film and Audio-visual Media. Whilst in Lodz, Prof. John Mugubi from KU delivered a lecture entitled “African Art as Ontological Cultural Political Proclamations: A Case of the Kenyan Film”.
The team from KU also visited the world-famous Lodz Film School, the city’s Museum of Cinematography, the Academy of Fine and Design, the Museum of the City of Lodz, the Museum of Art, the Central Museum of Textiles, and the Herbst Palace Museum.
In the beautiful village of Sokolowsko, located in Lower Silesia, the KU team visited the Museum of Contemporary Art that the In Situ Foundation is creating from a legendary 19th century sanatorium. In Sokolowsko, researchers screened films made by students at Kenyatta and engaged in discussions about those works with members of the Sokolowsko community followed by discussions of the same. The team also watched and discussed films by made by Krzysztof Kieslowski, the renowned director to whose life and work the centre is dedicated.
