AFTER 50 YEARS of doing visual arts, Epaphrodite Binamungu decided to go from an analogue to a digital way of showing his art to the world in the ‘Moving Forward’ solo art exhibition at the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village. Commonly known as Epa, the artist told The New Times that he started this exhibition two months ago as a way of launching his digital artwork. “Through this exhibition, I wanted to go from analogue and being called the ‘BBC: Born Before Computer’ and join the digital world since everything is moving with unanticipated speed. I also wanted to include the moving lines in all my art pieces and showcase the available development.” During the exhibition he also officially launched his website, www.epabinamungu.com, his digital platform through which he will sell his various artworks. From there, one can access his different pieces which are still available to be sold. This time round he exhibited 22 art pieces in total and in all of them, he used 24-carat real gold leaves, mixed media and real silver on some of them. “They are so expensive and they should be,” he said. “Producing them is expensive and the final products should never be so cheap at all. Only those who buy them are the keepers who know the value of art pieces and what it really means to own one.” According to the artist, he ventured into visual art when he was 18 and has since been doing at least two to four exhibitions a year. After seeing that young people get inspired by his work, he initiated the ‘Inganzo Arts Center’ which is located in Masaka, Kigali and is a space for every visual artist and welcoming to creative people who are willing to grow their talents in that field. To young visual artists, Epa said, I am so glad that some of the artists have passed through Inganzo Arts Center and the fact that they perceive me as their role model brightens my heart. This should be a bigger and better example to them; if I can do two to four exhibitions in a year when I am this old, how many can you do since you are still young with all the energy and possible resources? Never stop until you make it.
