A cohort of Rwandan women poets, painters, architects, fashion designers will be among the participants of the forthcoming ‘Layers of Agency’, a two-day artist talk slated to take place virtually from May 22-23 as they look forward to discussing the future of arts among indigenous people. Layers of Agency, which explores various prisms of indigenous reality and ecological consciousness from the past, present and future, will bring together the local and international women artists to have a brief discussion with US Ambassador to Rwanda and other program partners. The event is part of the Green Architecture Project being implemented in Rwanda by the Soul of Nations Foundation to further expand the art engagement facet. The women artists, designers and mentors expected to represent Rwanda at the event are fellows affiliated with the 2020-2021 International Fellowship cohort. They include painters Kakizi Jemima Akimanizanye, Louise Kanyange, Bora Sylvie, Shemsa Neza and Angella Ilibagiza, poets Natacha Muziramakenga and Ingabire Gretta, architects Jolie Muhimpundu and Orlane Mwanayera, musician Cheryl Isheja and Claudine Nishimwe, among others. One can easily imagine how gender, socio-economics, environmentalism and cultural presentational agency can be stifled and appropriated in western society. However, what does it mean to experience an identical plight in one’s own homelands and by one’s own peoples? Such questions and the related issues will be at the center of discussion during the event’s ‘artist talk’ section before artists do online exhibition of their works in their respective creative sections. Traditional forms of indigenous art and architecture have often been misrepresented in mainstream media and academia. The majority of Native Americans and African communities reside in rural areas where they oftentimes build and live in structures constructed with materials that have been obtained locally and are considered “green.” Participating artists are expected to highlight and portray all these through arts during an online exhibition session scheduled at the virtual event. Five collaborative and individual bodies of work inform the varying facets of Layers of Agency, and were manifested through an 18-month virtual fellowship administered by the Soul of Nations Foundation’s Indigenous International through the Green Architecture Project in Kigali. Indigenous International is the umbrella program created through the Soul of Nations Foundation’s Indigenous Arts Expansion Initiative which is aimed to help connect Indigenous and BIPOC communities with boundary-pushing cultural and artistic experiences around the world. Throughout this 18-month exchange program, fellows collectively engaged in a series of virtual exchanges that focused on environmental stability, feminism, and indigenous futurism. These organic discussions helped the artists to envision how their cultures and heritages intersect within the framework of several issues pertaining to the access of housing, urban planning, environmental policy, and traditional architectural representation in the popular imagination. The collection of works that culminate this virtual exhibition are entitled: Renaissance, Structure Maintenance, Our Home Products, Green Haven, and Planted in Fertile Soil.
