African Modernism: Kampala Workshop

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

The workshop explores the relationship between architecture and photography. It includes sessions that examine historical and contemporary approaches to photographing buildings from the Modernist period.

During the late 1950s and the early 1960s most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence. Architecture became one of the principal means with which the young nations expressed their national identity. Parliament buildings, central banks, stadiums, conference centers, universities and independence memorials were constructed, often featuring heroic and daring designs. The architecture in the capital cities of countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Ghana or Senegal still represents some of the best examples of 60s and 70s architecture worldwide. Nevertheless it has received little attention and still remains to be ‘rediscovered’.

The aim of this workshop is not to view the buildings as a monument of a bygone era, but rather, to see how they have adapted over time, and are now a part of the contemporary city.

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Project Credits
Project: African Modernism: Kampala Workshop, Kampala, Uganda
Project Team: Doreen Adengo (Co-curator), Charity Esenu, Stephen Muwanguzi
Collaborators: Manuel Herz (Curator), Rixt Woudsrta (Independent researcher), Timothy Latim (Independent Photographer), Geothe Zentrum Kampala
Project Year: October 1, 2018–October 5, 2018