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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

Iconic

2011

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

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

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

Afropolis (Nairobi section)

2010

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

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

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

I Love Nairobi

2009

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

Slum TV

2007

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

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.

The Naked Snail

2006

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A slug moustache moves across my face

Strings

2006

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

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