Arafa C. Hamadi - LETU - Virtual-Reality-Installation

In the organizer's words:

Arafa C. Hamadi creates imaginary spaces and multi-sensory settings for a self-determined queer life beyond social norms.

Born in Tanzania, they now work between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, switching artistically between different techniques, genres, physical and digital practices. Thematically, Arafa is primarily concerned with questions of queer identity, cultural affiliation and body politics. She also organizes temporary safe spaces and community events in Tanzania and is an artistic consultant for the annual "Beneath the Baobabs Festival" in Kenya.

The project "LETU" is an immersive virtual reality experience that allows visitors to dive into the 3D world of "Frankie". They follow Frankie through her memories, explore her childhood in Arusha and formative experiences at school and church. And set off into an altered reality in which queer and non-binary people from East Africa can exist freely, surrounded by a landscape they have designed themselves and in which they only tell the stories they are willing to share.

Short biography

Arafa Cynthia Hamadi is a non-binary, multidisciplinary artist with homebases in Tanzania and Kenya. She creates both analog and digital artworks in various media from photography, drawing, video, VR works to large-scale installations. The works often play with the overlapping of the conceptual and the physical, the ephemeral and the permanent, in the hope of encouraging visitors to reflect on their own perception.

- free of charge

- No ticket required

- VR glasses subject to availability

- Hall 2, ground floor

- Belongs to: History(ies) of Tanzania