{"id":57392,"date":"2023-10-15T15:16:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T15:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=57392"},"modified":"2023-10-15T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T14:54:09","slug":"exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition puts election posters in the limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>A Ugandan artist is offering commentary on Uganda\u2019s democracy, as well as the display and destruction of photographs that clutter public spaces during every general election cycle.<\/b><\/p>\n

Canon Griffin Rumanzi\u2019s photography exhibition at the Goethe-Zentrum Kampala\/Ugandan German Cultural Society (UGCS)\/Alliance Francaise in Kampala, will close on October 21.<\/p>\n

The photographs that have been on display since September 21 are those of posters that Rumanzi started capturing from 2016.<\/p>\n

The exhibition titled \u201c#PoliticianEyes (Let ME Help you Lead you)\u201d aims at an artistic stimulation of active citizenship. It highlights a more humane political process by showing a curious local phenomenon of the design, vandalism, decay, and placement of the election poster as part of a fac\u0327ade of democracy.<\/p>\n

The vandalism of the posters is also a major theme, with a shot of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine\u2019s layered over those of President Museveni\u2019s taking the biscuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it that way along Kampala Road, opposite Fido Dido. It was illustrating the hallowing reality of rumours that the former pop star is just another prop in Yoweri Museveni\u2019s political life. Different faces, same life force,\u201d Rumanzi told, adding, \u201cDepending on which depth or height you see things at. On the surface, it\u2019s one campaign poster vandalised to reveal what had been pasted over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tragicomedy <\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just what Rumanzi calls a \u201ctragicomedy\u201d in which one set of posters is put on the back of another that dominates the bill. A poster of the NRM\u2019s Salim Uhuru with a rope tied around it captures what Rumanzi reckons are \u201cmany competing tendencies in a laissez faire society.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cA politician\u2019s picture is there in all its honour, and bam! A street loan shark or \u2018African doctor\u2019 pastes their own message over. It\u2019s a statement about how lives carry on despite the power struggles. So many suggestions and contradictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The choice to deface posters per Rumanzi should not be reduced to \u201cthe expression of careless violence, dread, and misanthropy\u201d especially since \u201cthere are places where people attempt to conserve and maintain\u201d posters.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom untiringly trying to put purpose to life, to the bleakness of struggling to survive while disconnected from the best advances in how people conduct life today, there is a lot to be discussed,\u201d he notes, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s love, there\u2019s hate, the inattentive in between, and apathy, then what lies beneath and beyond. That is the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumanzi told this newspaper that he has \u201cabout five digital collages emanating from the photography series […] and documentary pictures\u201d on display at the exhibition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened spontaneously. Back in 2014, I was in Mbale District when I saw very mean faces of campaign posters and just wanted to make a fun post on my Instagram that, \u2018In the imbalu nation, they like their leaders unfriendly.\u2019 Then I contemplated that the caption may be funny, but may be too politically incorrect to set in text,\u201d he said of how the idea of the exhibition crystallised.<\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cBut then the posters suddenly became too conspicuous and some had panicked faces, others looking really malicious, others kind and too good to take the heat of Ugandan politics. So, I saw it was all more diverse, politician\u2019s eyes were as diverse as Ugandans. So I went on to study the subtleties of it further with the hashtag #PoliticianEyes to keep track. Evidently, the story got meaty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not superficial <\/b><\/p>\n

Rumanzi reckons his arm form is \u201can application of photography,\u201d with his body of work demanding an \u201cartistic research\u201d that goes deeper than the subterranean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have Taoist tendencies, a non-interventionist approach. It\u2019s regrettable that we take politics as a chance to exploit society instead of a realm of formulating social order,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cDemocracy is incomprehensible to the general sub-Saharan consciousness, we are still those tribal societies with our dances and a certain darkness that looms beneath every man in a suit in a boardroom or whoever is reading this newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the littering of the urban centres with these posters during and after general elections and how it should be solved, Rumanzi said: \u201cRight now, we wouldn\u2019t be having this show without it, but I thought about it a lot. I arrived at the premise that it\u2019s still beyond our civic status. If we\u2019re still struggling with the basics, how are we gonna allocate resources to this? Like, a road is broken somewhere because a culvert has broken or somebody stole a manhole cover somewhere and then KCCA finds the personnel to go around worrying about these posters?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a crazy thing like how the problems Ugandan leadership was dealing with in 1989 are still here. It\u2019s a gradual effort and just as those problems have reduced, if we don\u2019t destroy what we have built, a time will come when it will not be possible to wantonly display information in the Ugandan cities and other communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Who is Canon Griffin Rumanzi?<\/b><\/p>\n

Canon Griffin Rumanzi photographs, draws, paints, writes, and videos avidly. He constantly posts and shares these through social media such as UrbanUnkindness. He holds art in the highest and undeniable regard as the most unbridled form of sharing the experience and aspiration of our being; he is motivated by the mysteriousness of our presence, and all the possibilities.<\/p>\n

He collaborates with Andrea <\/b><\/p>\n

Stultiens on a platform they founded in 2011; History In Progress Uganda (HIPUganda), which collects and publishes photographs from collections and archives in Uganda. By doing this, HIPUganda opens up possibilities to relate to, react to, and think about Uganda\u2019s history in photographs.<\/p>\n

Rumanzi trained in Graphic Design and Advertising at APTECH Uganda from 2010 to 2012. He is informally and self-taught in digital photography, videography and video.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. A Ugandan artist is offering commentary on Uganda\u2019s democracy, as well as the display and destruction of photographs that clutter public spaces during every general election cycle. Canon Griffin Rumanzi\u2019s photography exhibition at the Goethe-Zentrum Kampala\/Ugandan German Cultural Society (UGCS)\/Alliance Francaise in Kampala, will close on October 21. The photographs that have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,258],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-57392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nExhibition puts election posters in the limelight - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Ugandan artist is offering commentary on Uganda\u2019s democracy, as well as the display and destruction of photographs ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exhibition puts election posters in the limelight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Ugandan artist is offering commentary on Uganda\u2019s democracy, as well as the display and destruction of photographs ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-15T15:16:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/10\/sm_1697368863.518557.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Exhibition puts election posters in the limelight\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-15T15:16:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\"},\"wordCount\":981,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/10\/sm_1697368863.518557.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/exhibition-puts-election-posters-in-the-limelight\",\"name\":\"Exhibition puts election posters in the limelight - 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