1st edtion of the DUOS Festival “COMMUNITY”
Kilifi, 25-27 of March 2021.
FILM: Zippy Kimundu+Małgorzata Mazur
PAINTING / SCULPTURE : Anna Orlikowska + Castro
STREET ART: Mohamed Mbwana Omar + Piotr Pauk
FASHION DESIGN: Wacu Kihara + Emilia Łapko
INSTALLATION: Zbigniew Rogalski + Richard Onyango
CONTEXTUAL ART: Mramba Mweni & Saidi Chengo + Łukasz Jastrubczak
PERFORMANCE: Simba Wanga + Anna Nowicka
PHOTOGRAPHY: Witek Orski + Biko Wesa
Festival of Art and Education “DUOS” is the exchange of knowledge and experience between artists from Academy of Art in Szczecin (Poland) and Kilifi County (Kenya). Artists work in DUOS in Kilifi and also in collaboration with the local community. Afterwards DUOS expand their projects in Szczecin and present them at National Museum in Szczecin.
The artists meet in DUOS in various disciplines: painting, sculpture, dance, performance, music, design, film, photography, architecture, journalism. DUOS work together in Kilifi for a period of three weeks, developing their projects with students, local youth, and practitioners (craftsmen, musicians , dancers, seamstresses etc). Each DUO has a dedicated space for work – in a local elementary school, Pwani University, the streets and walls of Mnarani district, or the studio of local painter. It is important for us that our activities are accessible for other community members and visible for the bigger public. The three-week cooperation is therefore summed up with three days of presentations of its results as a Festival, which is freely accessible for the local community.
2nd edition of the DUOS Festival “WOMEN POWER”
Kilifi, 3-4 September 2021.
Animation: Sheila Okanga & Iza Plucińska
Ceramics: Fauzia Aly Khan & Anna Molska
Dance / Body Based Performance: Faith Kwamboka & Marta Ziółek
Installation: Shaila Resia Agha & Aneta Grzeszykowska
Journalism: / Media: Ciro G. & Justyna Machnicka
Multimedia: Linda Shuma & Natalia Szostak
Music / Poetry: Shangazi Masika & Alicja Pilarczyk
Textile Design: Ciro Karimi & Irena Zieniewicz
2021 has been a year to celebrate women and outline their amazing contributions in the world and their communities at large. That’s why, the second edition of the DUOS Festival in Kilifi is dedicated to women empowerment, with Mekatilili wa Menza, the Giriama freedom fighter and heroin of the Mijikenda tribe, as the Patroness.
For the period of three weeks (from 16 August to 6th September) eight female duos from Kenya and Poland: poets, musicians, dancers, photographers, and craftswomen; will work in different places around Kilifi town to develop their projects, exchange knowledge and work together with students and members of local community.
During the festival, we will showcase the heritage of Mekatilili, the essence of sisterhood, and bring to focus women empowerment through art and culture.
The three-week cooperation will be summed up with three days of presentations of its results in the form of studio visits, which is freely accessible for the local community. The Festival will include an open-air cinema, concerts, shows, games and activities for children, in addition to exhibitions, guided tours, and open studios.
3rd edition of the DUOS Festival “SOCIAL ECOLOGY”
Kilifi & Mombasa, 1-4 of March 2023
JOSEPH ALLAN GREEN & RAFAŁ ŻARSKI
art in public space
YONA MUDIBO & NATALIA KARCZEWSKA
installation / sculpture
PHILIP TANGARA (PET THE POET) & ZORKA WOLLNY
music / performance
CAROLINE NGOROBI & JUSTYNA CELEDA
community theatre
MIKE OKOTH & ANNA MARIA KARCZMARSKA
scenography
MBINGA & MIKOŁAJ MAŁEK
scenography & photography
TOMMIE OMINDE & IGOR OMULECKI
photography
RUBY WANJIRU KANG’ETHE & MAGDALENA SZYMKÓW
film
RAFAŁ KRZANOWSKI
percussion music
ROSITA DELUIGI (University of Macerata)
Kids Session
The third edition of TPAAE’s DUOS Festival will be held in Mombasa and Kilifi in February, with final presentation on March 1st (Mombasa) and March 4th (Kilifi) 2023. Kenyan and Polish artists will again test the possibilities of artistic cooperation in a transcultural perspective. This time they will focus on the principles of Social Ecology. These DUOS will lead teams of interns from Pwani University and the Technical University of Mombasa in artmaking workshops, with presentation sites set for Kilifi and Nyali. A satellite event, the LAMPART Short Film Festival, will award films selected via open-call, made by university students and Coastal filmmakers.
Social Ecology is a socio-political philosophy that sees the economic imbalances arising from various forms of hierarchy and domination as the root cause of the world’s impending environmental crisis brought on by global warming. Developed by American political philosopher Murray Bookchin, Social Ecology proposes a model of society adapted to human development and the biosphere through which this crisis might be addressed. It is a theory of radical political ecology based on confederations of self-governing municipalities, which stands counter to the current, capitalist system of top-down production and mass consumption. It seeks to create a unified society that is moral, decentralized and guided by reason. This type of socio-political organization today is practiced only in the Rojava autonomous region in northern Syria, making it the sole place in the world with this form of direct democracy.
Working as DUOS in these broader collaborative ensembles, the artists will carry out projects in their various fields with the help of students and local practitioners (artisans, musicians, dancers). These three-week collaborations are curated by Lukasz Jastrubczak in collaboration with Izabela Plucinska, instructors from the Academy of Art in Szczecin (Poland), which is a participating institution in TPAAE. The outcomes will be presented at the Alliance Francaise in Mombasa (Nyali), and in the Kilifi town center. The festival is open to the local community. The joint projects will then travel to Szczecin, where they will be presented at the National Museum in Szczecin in June 2023. The festival features an allied Kids Session, in which pupils from area elementary schools engage in projects with visiting researcher from University of Macerata, Rosita Deluigi.
The LAMPART Short Film Festival offers student filmmakers and coastal producers the opportunity to present their films in three categories: DOCUMENTARY, FICTION, and a NO LIMIT category for experimental work. The festival, directed by Izabela Plucinska, takes its name from the Polish word for leopard. Films submitted through an open call will be screened in Mombasa (Alliance Francaise) and Kilifi. The Jury – combined of TPAAE Board of Art members, Issa Ghana – chair of Coast Filmmakers Association and Heinz Hermanns – director of InterFilm Festival will award prizes in each category (KES40,000) in a ceremony set for March 4 in Kilifi.
3rd edition of DUOS Festival is organized in collaboration with
Alliance Francaise Mombasa.
The Honorary Patronage of the Festival was taken by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Nairobi.
Project is co-financed by the program of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education entitled “PMW” in 2020-2023; contract no. 5109/H2020/2020/2
The bigger picture:
The DUOS Festivals demonstrate the practical application of the teaching techniques that degree-seeking students at Pwani will employ in their professional lives. The festivals take place at intervals within TPAAE, offering opportunities for students to observe artists from Kenya and Poland as they create dedicated works in their fields of artistic endeavor expressly for the event. The DUOS then journey to Poland, where their work is continued and displayed at the National Museum in Szczecin.
curators
Zorka Wollny & Łukasz Jastrubczak (1st edition)
Zorka Wollny & Ciro G. (2nd edition)
Łukasz Jastrubczak (3rd edition)
zorka.wollny@tpaae.eu
lukasz.jastrubczak@tpaae.eu
coordinators
Izabela Plucińska
Caroline Ngorobi
Witek Orski
Ciro G
Marnie Wolfenden
Wiktoria Tundys
photo documentation
Yuda Oriema
Michał Kulik
Witek Orski
design
Post-Noviki