Simba Mbili

Ongoing

with: Marian Nur Goni
A podcast/research project about the powerful imaginaries of the lions of Tsavo, the man-eaters who stalled the Kenya-Uganda railway in 1898

Baumbestand

Ongoing

with: SHOPLIFT Design and Dawid Liftinger
A participatory art project that embeds the memory of 105 felled trees in a new school's architecture

NRB DSTRBTD

2024

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An artist book which untangles political narratives of ethnic identity from the way in which identities are experienced in day to day life

Made in Chinafrica

2022

with: David Lalé
An experimental documentary which tells the stories of African migrant traders living and working in Guangzhou

A Topography of Loss

2021

with: Simon Rittmeier
An inquiry into the agency of the Kenyan objects encountered in the storage depot of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne

International Inventories Programme

2021

with: The Nest, SHIFT Collective, National Museums of Kenya, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and the Welkulturen Museum
An artistic, research and curatorial project that investigates a corpus of Kenyan cultural objects held in institutions in the Global North

Die Dauercamperin

2019

with: Jens Mühlhoff
Die Dauercamperin stages a dystopic future to ask how agency and independence of the individual can manifest in a networked world

Skiza Sea

2018

with: Sophia Bauer
Marine melodies created from underwater coral reef recordings and recordings of songs about the ocean by people living on the Kenyan coast

The Bike Gang

2018

with: John Kamicha
A series of collectively-produced video clips which re-enact anecdotes and to narrate stories of bikes and belonging in Nairobi’s Eastlands

GZ Calling

2017

with: David Lalé
A video work that explores the labyrinthine world of Guangzhou’s export markets, the nexus of 21st Century global capitalism

The Ministry of Plastic (touring exhibition)

2017

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An installation that stages a future in which there is no more oil and plastic has become a cherished and valuable resource

Kenya Navy Sick Bay

2015

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An installation based on a vernacular archive of 300 hand-made, “fake” institutional stamps made by a Mombasa-based stamp carver

Letter to Lagat

2015

with: Simon Rittmeier
A parable about ownership and loss. The book imagines the vanishing of an entire museum collection and asks what would remain behind

Mashup the Archive

2015

with: Nadine Siegert
A series of festivals and exhibitions with Africa-based artists in residence dedicated to activating the archive of the Iwalewahaus

Re-imagining Out of Africa

2015

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A project which imagines a future in which Hollywood and Nollywood fuse and cross-fertilise

A Life in the Day

2013

with: Slum TV
A series of video works which try to understand how ethnicity is experienced in everyday life in present-day Kenya

Dead Insects In My Parents Pool

2013

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A series of quasi scientific photos (light boxes) of dead insects found in my parents swimming pool

Not in the Title too

2013

with: Sophia Bauer
Inquiry into a Nigerian video archive, part 2. We commissioned Robbie Bresson, a Kenyan film director to produce a Nigerian horror film

Once upon a Time

2013

with: Marcel Odenbach
A video installation which explores belief and identity for four Ugandan Rabbinical students from the Abayudaya community in Mbale

Logos Of Non-profit Organisations Working In Kenya (Some of Which Are Imaginary)

2012

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A series of silk screen prints which mixes real and fake Kenyan NGO logos

Not in the Title

2012

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An immersive video and spatial installation that inserts fake Nollywood films into the Iwalewahaus Nollywood film collection

Grassroots Upgraded

2011

with: Slum TV
A photography book of LOMO photos, unconventional and unexpected images, documenting life in Mathare, a slum in east Nairobi

Iconic

2011

with: Franziska Lukas
The first solo exhibition of Peter Mwangi Irungu, a Nairobi-based itinerant photographer working with photomontage techniques

Ochuo’s Funeral

2011

with: Kevo Stero
The retelling and re-enactment of Ochuo’s Funeral, an iconic event in the recent history of Kianda in Kibera (Nairobi)

Sustainability. A concept I genuinely believe in, but a word I do not trust

2011

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A streamed performance of representatives of real organisations, and actors representing fictional organisations, discussing sustainability

Afropolis (Nairobi section)

2010

with: Christian Hanussek
An exhibition and research project on five African megacities: Cairo, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Kinshasa and Lagos

Sketches

2010

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A solo exhibition (and artist book) showcasing a collection of contextual artworks in different forms and in differing stages of completion

I Love Nairobi

2009

with: Urban Mirror
Upendo Hero. The hero of love. A public space superhero

It’s a Pity We Only Exist in the Future

2009

with: African Maximalism
An art exhibition and research project about public space in Nairobi

Samson’s Dead Stock: A Matrix of Remembering and Forgetting

2009

with: Samson
An installation made of ‘Dead Stock’ - portraits commissioned by visitors to Nairobi’s Nyayo Monument which they then never picked up

Slum TV

2007

with: Julius Mwelu, Alex Nikolic, Fred Otieno, Lukas Pusch
A grassroots media collective based in Mathare, Nairobi

6 hours for 6 days

2006

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From 06.09.06 until 11.09.06 for 6 hours a day I sat on a bench in Kuznicza Street in Wroclaw

Strings

2006

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Sisal string structures built in the forest which try to evoke shafts of light coming through the trees

The Naked Snail

2006

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A slug moustache moves across my face

The Seduction of Completion

2006

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I numbered the bricks of an exterior prison wall in Leuven for seven hours a day, over a period of 10 days. I counted 15,776 bricks.