Exhibition: Invisible Inventories Opening At The Nairobi National Museum
Invisible Inventories, an exhibition project by the International Inventories Programme officially opened at the Nairobi National Museum yesterday! Invisible Inventories is a project that explores the questions of the objects’ absence in Kenya and reflects on this loss through art, research, inquiry and collaboration. This exhibition has been more than 2 years in the making!
Our own artworks in the exhibition focus on the IIP database of Kenyan objects in museums abroad. We used the database to provide the foundation for our visual interpretations and insights. One of our featured works is '31,302', consisting of thermal prints on continuous adhesive labels. 31,302 unique labels each represent an object from the IIP database—holding space for objects absent in Kenya, and for the histories of the communities from which they came. We also explore some of the collectors named in the database, through rewritten biographies. We unpack the idea of the value of museum objects, and the differences between their street value in Kenya and their museum values once they cross into institutions, as well as their insurance values. We present a breakdown of the materials the objects in the database are made of. We additionally consider objects of national importance, engaging with particular artefacts of special interest to Kenyan people, history and culture. These include two significant lost remains: the fossils of Orrorin tugenensis, a hominid ancestor; and the head of Koitalel Arap Samoei, the warrior and spiritual leader treacherously and violently murdered by British colonialists.
The rest of the IIP team have their own pieces in this multidisciplinary offering. The National Museums of Kenya research team have a community voices documentary that brings out firsthand responses to the debate on contentious parts of Kenya’s cultural heritage currently domiciled in museums and cultural institutions abroad. They also share paintings and installations exploring this absence of Kenyan cultural objects. The partnering museums (including Frankfurt’s Weltkulturen Museum and Cologne’s Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum) present shared reflections on objects that have moved. The French-German artist-researcher collective named SHIFT, comprising Sam Hopkins Marian Nur Goni and Simon Rittmeier, have multiple art pieces, from textile to video art, and several installations. One of their works, Topography of Loss, attempts to poetically map the absence of these objects, and to give a glimpse into a larger landscape of missing things.
The exhibition runs from 18th March to 2nd May at the Nairobi National Museum! Drop by anytime between 8.30am to 5.30pm to have a tour of the exhibition. Be assured that the Nairobi National Museum is following the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 awareness safety advisory and regulations to the letter. Do let us know what you think of the exhibition on any of our social media pages: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
(Please note that general museum entry fees apply. Find their latest rates here!)