Dar es Salaam Centre for Architectural Heritage (DARCH), Nafasi Art Space and the National Museum of Tanzania present Impose/Expose: Art Revealing Space, a public art exhibition that will take place across the city centre of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Curated by visual artist Rehema Chachage (Tanzania) and educator/curator Sarita Lydia Mamseri (UK/Tanzania) and assisted by Gadi Ramadhani (Tanzania), the exhibition seeks to reveal the physical and metaphorical spaces in a fast-changing cityscape. Eight artists have responded to themes of the built environment, the natural environment and the human environment to create works that will attempt to provoke a dialogue in relation to the evolution of the city. The works will take the form of interventions– impositions and interruptions of seen and unseen spaces.

Participating artists present work across a broad spectrum of media that is reflective of local practices and traditions through a contemporary framework. The artists are Amani Abeid, Cloud Chatanda, Paul Ndunguru, Jackson Ngumba & Safina Kimbokota, Dickens Otieno, John Suleiman, Nadir Tharani and Jan van Esch.

Many of the works engage with the challenges of space and structures. Dickens Otieno has created an intricately woven mat from found soft- drink cans to be draped upon a section of one of the oldest, yet little noticed buildings in Dar es Salaam. Nadir Tharani and Jan van Esch have each created imposing and incongruous installations that question the use of materials in new builds that would appear contrary to Dar es Salaam’s hot and humid climate. Amani Abeid and Cloud Chatanda will be ‘performing’ their concerns in situ through live-responsive drawing over the two-week period of the exhibition, which will be filmed. While Paul Ndunguru is concerned with identity, his sculptural installation questions how we see ourselves in an evolving Dar es Salaam. Jackson Ngumba and Safina Kimbokota have created a sound piece using traditional kitchen utensils typical of local street vendors. And lastly, John Suleiman will do a one-day only performance piece that considers the plight of the almost mythical creature, the pangolin that for the few who see it, decree it a foreteller, an omen of things to come.

Opening event: Saturday 26 September, 14.00–18.30

The exhibition will start at the National Museum and House of Culture on Shabaan Robert Street and follow a loop around Samora Avenue, Morogoro Road and Sokoine Drive. 

Guided tours will be available on Saturday 26 September and on exhibition closing day, Saturday 10 October 2015.