Kunst gegen den Strich

In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda I have had the opportunity to visit Caplaki, the 'Village des Artistes de Kigali'. It is found outside the center of Kigiali.

I about a dozen huts mostly African artisan craftwork is sold: masks, spears, idols and all sort of wooden stuff. But a few of the dealers are also artists. Between all this traditional staff I have found a few paintings. You can see them here:

Imigongo paintings are a truly indigenous Rwandan art form. Imigongo were originally created and developed by Kakira, the son of the king in the Kibungo region in the east of Rwanda near the Tanzanian border, who used them to decorate the interior of his dwelling.

Simple, classic abstract motifs and stark, modern colors characterize the original imigongo designs. In original, the artists use natural pigments ranging from white and black to ochre. I have found this Imigongo art in one of the few shops, which sells "traditional african artwork", especially spears and masks and so on. These squares are made of wood - no cow dung was detected.

Whereas the traditional motifs are geometrical, since a couple of years, more modern pattern have also been used in the Kigali of today:

I have found in Black looks blog an article about Anastácia Escrava, an Angolian princess, who was kidnapped and forced to become the mistress of her white master in Brazil. Anastacia resisted her capture, her rape and abuse and for that she was forced to wear a metal muzzle. In the blog you can see a sculpture of Matt Branson (and read a poem) about this "Muzzled wounds of slavery". Both are indeed very impressive.

There is a very fine internet cafe in the heart of Kigali, the "Boubon Coffee". There you can surf and drink fine coffees from the Akagera region of Rwanda. And you can look onto wand filling artworks in the cafe.

The nice thing of the artworks is, that they are made out of coffee and other materials, connected with coffee:

In the mid of january 2008 I have the pleasure to travel to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda ("the country of the thousand hills", as they named it). Naturally, I have shot a lot of photos of art, I have seen there.

When my host Bobito Masanga and I visited his sister Germaine at her working place in the Eco Bank, we found two very big paintings at the front wall of this Nigerian bank. Here You can see a few pictures of the paintings: