Event Details
Longinos Nagila is a visual artist. He was born in 1986 in Kenya.
Longinos held his first solo exhibition in Lecce, Italy in 2009-2010 and since then he has continued to exhibit in Italy. In 2012-2013 he was one of the artists who exhibited at the Museo Africano in Verona, Italy.
In Kenya, he held his first solo exhibition at Shift - Eye Gallery in Nairobi.
He works with different mediums ranging from coffee, charcoal and acrylics. He is inspired by different artists from whom he has developed his own visual language. These artists include Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, and Egon Schiele, just to name a few.
His currently lives and work in Nairobi, Kenya where he has a studio at Kuona Trust Art Center.
The talk begins promptly at 2pm.
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"How enlightened is wearing God like some do Versace?" - Vanna Bonta
The technician is a dreamer and architect. Sacred can be taken to be something that is beyond human understanding. In today’s world we have human technicians trying to create something that is sacred. The technician represents himself, therefore, as a demi-god or God.
In looking at fashion and faith, Longinos exposes the irony of what the converted are called to hold as sacred.
The two live side by side, and it is the irony of their co-existence that Longinos tackles. His is an exploration of the irony of society, religion and identity. Technicians of the Sacred talks about the cultism found in material items and in the immaterial. By juxtaposing fashion and religion, the show raises questions about what is sacred and by extension what is traditionally or authentically African.
It also examines the role of Africa, its products and where these fit into the global conversation of Africa not as a receiver but also as a producer. This is evidenced more widely in the way in which there is growing African influence in fashion, products in technology and contributions through art and entertainment.