By Ogova Ondego
Published December 5, 2017
Art from the streets of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is about to invade and occupy Nairobi National Museum (NNM) not for 10, 15 or 20 but 36 days!
Nairobi’s house of culture invites lovers of art to join the artists who make up the BSQ (short for The Bomb Squad) Crew on December 8, 2017 from 2:00 PM for what it refers to as “a fun and interactive graffiti session” in its Creativity Gallery where NextGen (Next Generation), an exhibition by BSQ Crew, shall be opened.
NexGen is expected to showcase the various techniques employed by BSQ in collaborative and individual works as it investigates how contemporary culture is affected by traditional worldview and technology.
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The curators of the show describe current generation as one “that has forgotten the beauty of our culture” and state that this is the subject of murals and graffiti that shall be displayed in the Creativity Gallery between December 8, 2017 and January 15, 2018 .
BSQ Crew, that comprises Kenneth Otieno (Kaymist4), Bebeto Ochieng (Thufu-B) and Brian Musasia (Msale), describes itself on its bsqart.com website as”a street art group hailing from the city streets of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi” and that its members share “a passion and love for art, specifically mural work and graffiti.”
Describing itself as “the most energetic, inspiring and creative art crew in East and Central Africa,” BSQ says it is “a group of young Kenyan artist formed in 2011.”
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Passion for turning plain urban walls into art using the graffiti art form, BSQ says, is what brought the young artists together and eventually led to the formation of the group.
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NextGen being BSQ’s first major exhibition, the group “hopes to show museum visitors that street art is not only for vandalism but can be displayed in a …gallery to express and address different societal issues, in this case to portray how technology has affected our culture, both positively and negatively,” an NNM statement to the media says.
BSQ Crew, that says it has set its focus on “taking contemporary African art in graffiti form to walls across the universe”, says some of its work can be viewed at Karen Village Art Centre in Nairobi, Snake Park at NNM, Kenya Airports Authority, Nairobi Railways Museum, PAWA 254 and Kilifi Baobab Cottages all in Kenya and European Union Head office in Belgium.
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