FESTIVITIES AT CLOSINGS AND OPENINGS ON NAIROBI ARTS SCENE

By margaretta wa gacheru Sun, Feb 19, 1:37 AM There were festivities and celebrations all around Nairobi this past weekend but one. It was a time to celebrate new beginnings as well as new endings. The two most prominent venues to witness these contrasting festivities were first, the three-day festival at the Goethe Institute where a two-year hiatus was ending with the re-opening of a newly renovated GI that was opening its doors for the first time in many months. The second celebrations were happening at the new Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) where their first major exhibition entitled ‘Mwili, Akili, na Roho: 10 Figurative Painters from East Africa’ was closing. At the same time, the Institute was celebrating the launch of two new publications and a talk by the leading professor of East African Art History, George Kyeyune. No less than five of the 10 artists feeatured in the exhibition were affiliated with Kenya, namely Sane Wadu, Meek Gichugu, Elimo Njau, Jak Katarikawe, and Theresa Musoke. The rest are mainly affiliated with Makerere University and the Margaret Trowell School of Art. Even Jak and Theresa, being Ugandan by birth, have bonds with what many consider to be the birthplace of East African art. It was a point that Professor Kyeyune did not contest during his talk last Saturday. The biggest crowd of well-wishers were at the Goethe from Friday night when the new Director of the Institute, Lilly.. was on hand, together with the Deputy German Ambassador … The Chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake, .. was also there to recall the 40 years that the Goethe has been a friendly tenant in Maendeleo’s house just off of Waiyaki Way and University Way. What was also being celebrated at GI was the 60th anniversary that the Institute shared with the Kenyan nation. “Kenya is turning 60 this year as is the Goethe Institute, so we are proud to say, the German Government was the first to recognize the independent state of Kenya, and we have been working together ever since,” said Deputy Ambassador…. Speaking about the various types of exchange programs that have been conducted from the beginning, he noted that everyone from scientists and scholars, students and entrepreneurs had been involved in cultural and economic exchange programs. This led to talk about what was covering the walls of the main auditorium where the festivities were centred. ‘The History of Vinyl’ was a bit of a mystery to young people who had never heard of vinyl records. But as Aghan Odero explained, Kenyan music during its heydays in the 70s and early 80s was listened to either through the playing of the juke box, which Aghan said was ubiquitous, in every single bar in the city, during that golden era of vinyl. People spun their vinyl disks on record players, several of which were part of the exhibition. To clarify how important vinyl records were to the rise of the music industry in Kenya, Aghan together with TICAH’s Eric Menya co-curated hundreds of vinyl record ‘jackets’ and hung them on the exhibition hall walls. Filled with names that had once been commonly known in Nairobi and other urban centres, the record jackets were for everyone from Franco, Tabu Ley, and Orchestra Mangelepa, popular Congolese artists to Orchestra Virunga, Les Wanyika, Simba Wanjika, and even David Amunga. “We thought that since Goethe Institute was celebrating 60 years of history, the inclusion of Nairobi’ popular music history would elicit good memories,” Aghan said