By Ogova Ondego
A virtual film memorial titled Hybrid BIO_GEO-GRAPHIES by Jacob Barua has given lovers of culture and the arts the chance to enjoy their indulgence through virtual reality (VR) and spherical projection as art, memory and technology intertwined, combining film, virtual reality and reflections on identity.
The exhibition that was held at Kenyatta University in Kiambu County and Nairobi National Museum in Nairobi targeted students, teachers and lovers of film, media and culture in the general public.
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The virtual film memorial, the first time ever for a public VR show of films by a Kenyan filmmaker was done in the East African country, offered an engaging way to connect with cultural landscapes of Kenya and Poland. While the first part of the experience was served via MetaQuest headsets, the second was through a 360-degree diorama where the audience was again inside the films.
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The films shown were 51-minute Shades of Poland (1999) documentary on the shared history of Poles and Africans; 10-minute Greeting or Welcoming (1992) fiction in which a boy welcomes himself, bids farewell to the spirit of his ancestor and solves a geographical puzzle as he dreams of travelling; 25-minute My Daddy Was A Cavalryman (2006) on the life of a Pole who was carried by World War II to Kenya where she found her home away from home; 19-minute Forgotten Places (1993) on the mythical history of the Kenyan coast and its inhabitants; 19-minute In Memory of Me (1990) in memory of nurturers of Polish identity in the world; and 29-minute This-That (1989) on a mysterious student to the university where he is stigmatised and haunted the vision of the Greek legend of Icarus and his flight to the Sun.
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The virtual film memorial created an immersive, interactive artistic experience that brought together memory, identity and intercultural dialogue between Poland and Kenya.
Jacob Barua is a Nairobi-based Kenyan Polish film director, screenwriter, photographer and producer who graduated in film and literature studies from Britain’s Warwick University in 1989 before proceeding to the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, Poland.
“Jacob Barua’s BIO_GEO_GRAPHIES is an artistic record of movement — between continents, languages, memories, and identities. A selective virtual archive of Barua’s artworks and poetic map of belonging, intertwining Poland and Africa, art and technology, past and future,”Aleksandra Łukaszewicz, the co-curator of the show, said.
The Jacob Barua film retrospective that was presented at Kenyatta University on December 4 and Nairobi National Museum on December 10, is co-curated by Aleksandra Łukaszewicz and Karina Katarzyna Sadowska, both visiting professors at Kenyatta University on the outskirts of Nairobi City.
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The virtual film memorial was presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Poland, KreniArt Limited and Konkret Art Gallery.
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