PichaTime
2020
A promotional poster for PichaTime 2020.
Let's Talk About Home
The question “What is home to you?” may seem deceptively simple, yet it opens the door to rich conversations about what truly matters to each of us: a sense of belonging, whether tied to a place, a community, a language, or simply the feeling of safety. I often think of home not just as a physical space, but as a place where we hold a stake in its future—where we can shape it into a more livable environment, an external expression of our inner worlds.
This question was at the heart of a discussion we introduced to several cultural practitioners from Dar es Salaam. In 2020, as part of the Tukutane Dar Arts Weekend, PichaTime curated a series of moderated artist talks featuring five artists. Each was invited to explore the concept of home in relation to their work. During the event, contemporary dancer Samwel Japhet from Dar es Salaam screened Letters from the Continent, a film in which he appears.
Also performing that evening was musician Siti Amina from Zanzibar. Her music—particularly the genre of taarab—reflects a centuries-old tradition of cultural and musical exchange across the Indian Ocean. Often sung in Swahili, taarab borrows its instruments, rhythms, and musical nuances from a variety of “Dhow Countries,” places connected by the historical routes of dhow sailing vessels.
Other participants who shared their work included Paul Ndunguru (a visual artist, sculptor, and musician), Isack Abeneko (a dancer, musician, and the founder of ASADEVA), and Haikaeli Gilliad (a curator and founder of Balcony Series). Through their diverse perspectives, we collectively deepened our understanding of what home can be.
Siti Amina, from Siti and the Band, perfoming during PichaTime Session at Nafasi Art Space, November 19th 2020.
A promotional video for PichaTime's Let's 'Talk About Home' Session at Nafasi Art Space, November 19th 2020.
Haikali Gilliard, a founder of Balcony Series, having a conversation with Aika Kirei about her her platform, Balcony Series, at PichaTime Session at Nafasi Art Space, November 19th 2020.
PichaTime 2020 Team
Curator: Nicholas Calvin M.
Sound Recording: Victor John
Graphic Design: Nicholas Calvin M.
Moderators:
Jesse Gerald
Aika Kirei
Haikaeli Gilliard
Remi Busch
Nicholas Calvin M.
Guest Artist:
Paul Ndunguru
Samuel Japhet
Siti Amina
Isack Abeneko
Haikaeli Gilliard
Special Thanks to Nafasi Art Space and their Team, as well as Tukutane Dar.
IMAGES
AS
IDEAS
A Workshop at About the Power of Images
April-May 2019
A quirky in-between—this space of possibilities—where your photographic expression is as potent as any other medium in communicating the ideas that matter to you. The power of the camera is the power of the person behind it. But what emerges when the person in front of the lens becomes an active participant in the image-making process? What new insights do we gain then?
And what can we say about the so-called “foreign gaze”—the agenda-driven media that collects and curates our likeness as evidence for whatever keeps the news cycle spinning? How does the story shift when we take part in making our own images, regardless of how mundane that process may feel?
Over the course of a month, through weekly PichaTime workshop sessions, we invited guest artists—local photographers Andrew Munua and Vanessa Mwingira—to share their experiences. Together, we engaged in creating images both behind and in front of the camera, experimenting in a studio setting.
On the final day, the work produced during these sessions was showcased at Nafasi Art Space. We invited local musician, Naomisia, to perform for the evening, and screened a short animated story, Tale from Kijenge, by local animator Charles Lupali.
Guest Artist
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During the PichaTime's exhibition, May 11 2019, at Nafasi Art Space we were honored to have a guest performer Naomisia gracing the stage during the PichaTime exhibition. Here is a short conversation with her.
Exhibition Recap
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PichaTime
2018
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Our very first PichaTime session was a workshop, inviting photography enthusiasts from around the city to come and play with light and talk about photography—its power to connect and its potential as a tool for self-expression.
From the start, we were thinking about how we could create this image-making thing together as a community. We wanted to learn and play, but also to reflect on what it really means to take a picture, or to have your picture taken—to be both in front of the camera, confronting the lens, and behind it, choosing that decisive moment to press the shutter.
Photography has often been used to capture the world and communicate "the truth in front of the camera." But especially when we think about the African continent, much of that "truth" has focused on the suffering: famine-ridden villages, war-torn communities fleeing their land, starving children waiting for food aid. While these images reflect real situations, there are so many other stories to tell, a wealth of diverse experiences beyond those often-repeated, empathy-begging images.
Exploring and discussing these ideas, we approached photography with a simple but powerful act: presenting ourselves, our bodies, in front of the camera. This idea has become a recurring theme in many of our sessions. We believe that most of life happens in the mundane, in the everyday—and learning to capture and communicate those ordinary moments can be just as powerful and important as capturing any grand, dramatic event.
