A photography exhibition by Guillaume Bonn with films from Grace Ndiritu and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Dreams and Dystopias visually navigates the East African coastline through the lens of photographer and author Guillaume Bonn to reveal a region perennially poised between two worlds. Tracing the artist’s personal journey through Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia, his photographs reveal place as archaeological site eclipsing a disappearing past, barely effable but through the echoes of its fragments and traces. The failure of colonialism is evident as we encounter dystopic landscapes, laid waste and crumbling into ruin through conflict, poverty and displacement. The poignancy of a past to which one can never return: ‘le mal d’Afrique’ some have called it, yet one that remains ever-present in its landscape of deserted dreams. Today, East Africa is undergoing transformation – mosquito and malaria-ridden, marked by the traces of dictatorship and war, at the mercy of the consumption and commerce of the Western world. Guillaume Bonn’s photographs capture the old Africa in its unrelentingly vibrant native culture and natural beauty in the midst of these formidable challenges on the edge of inexorable change.
| Duration | 11 October 2019 - 03 November 2019 |
| Times | Wed-Sun, 11am – 6pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Ismail Centre |
| Address | 1-7 Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington, London, SW7 2SL |
| Contact | 02075812071 / press@iiuk.org / https://the.ismaili/microsite/united-kingdom |