Exhibitions – Deveron Arts

Deveron Arts

 

Ekiffo Ekyokwetariramu – Room to Roam

Rocca Gutteridge, Jacques Coetzer, Claudia Zeiske,
a.o. African and European artists and art professionals

Dates: 20th – 26th August

Location: Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda

A foot print exploration with Rocca Gutteridge, Jacques Coetzer and Claudia Zeiske in the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda.

In 1876, Alexander McKay an Aberdeenshire loon from Rhynie near Huntly went to Uganda carrying round a heavy printing press to disseminate his views of civilization and Christianity. By introducing script to the Lugandan language, he also employed his scientific knowledge, engineering and road making skills. Was he there to also expand the British Empire, directly or indirectly? Questions that have the rightful potential to send the conversation in a predictable, “colonial finger pointing” direction. But there is also a more pragmatic side to the story: like the adventure tourists today, – the explorers and missionaries first and foremost were curious and through their wanderlust, spread the early seeds of globalization, whether for good or for bad. Humankind evolves through constant exploration and migration along trade routes. Apart from cultural cross-pollination and social evolution, these basic economic mechanisms inevitably also have an effect on our approach to agriculture and industry and how we see ourselves in relation to nature and ecology.

In following the Room to Roam principle a group of African and European artists will walk the human pace through a Slow Marathon over six days in the tropical rainforest of the Rwenzori mountains, the Mountains of the Moon. Trying to tread lightly but think deeply, they will carry a small printing press leaving temporary traces as their footprints wash away, occasionally, standing on a mountain with the mists lifting to reveal a clear view of the sky and the valley below across the now closed Congolese border.

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