The residency included two days of workshops in Nairobi, a 24-hour train journey on the Lunatic Express from Nairobi to Mombasa, a multi-media performance installation and day of community building in Kilifi on the Kenyan coast. Out of 160 applicants, 40 artists from different disciplines and countries were selected. The participating creatives worked with 9 masterclass artists \u2013 \u2018Artivators\u2019 \u2013 and 1 Artistic Director, the illustrious Ghanaian musician Jojo Abot<\/strong><\/a>, around the theme \u2018Kovu Safarini, \u2018Scars Acquired Along the Way\u2019. The train \u2013 itself a \u2018scar\u2019 in the landscape and with its own historic baggage \u2013 offered a journey that was intense, unique and challenging, space and time were compressed, which accelerated the process of connecting and creating.<\/p>\n Each Artivator hosted workshops around a specific creative discipline in Nairobi \u2013 fashion, beat production, music, dance, visual arts and words \u2013 and developed ideas and creative processes for collaborative projects within the moving train. Artivators came from across the region and included the prolific contemporary visual artist Michael Soi<\/strong><\/a> (Kenya), Founder of Kampala Fashion Week Gloria Wavamunno<\/strong><\/a> (Uganda), and internationally renowned DJ and Producer Blinky Bill<\/strong><\/a> (Kenya). The train is old with compact sleeping compartments, which turned into \u2018creative cells\u2019 during the journey. Cramped up in those small cabins and narrow hallways, it was amazing to observe artists breaking out from their comfort zones and accepting the grueling challenge of creating new work with strangers from different cultural backgrounds and disciplines. The time and space constraints sparked creativity in a unique way. According to Anne Mwiti \u2013 a successful artist and lecturer at Kenyatta University in Kenya \u2013 \u201cthe whole experience was special and unparalleled: from the introductory process of getting to know each other as artists at the National Railway Museum in Nairobi, to meeting the Artivators, to the intense train journey to Mombasa with very little sleep, to the final destination at the Distant Relatives Eco-lodge in Kilifi, to the performances on the final evening. The experience was real, unpretentious and very committed, leaving an after taste that generated a new \u00ab\u00a0identity\u00a0\u00bb at a very primal level.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Artivators managed to melt and mound their teams into working groups with a shared vision despite the heat, time constraints and space limitations that challenged the participants. The focus of the residency was on the creative process, building trust and collaborations between artists from different places and disciplines. The final installation performance served as a driver and focus point for the 99 artists and passengers who jumped on board. Nine very powerful collaborative pieces beautifully demonstrated the growth from 2016 to 2017 and the diverse creative processes that had happened.<\/p>\n Moving forward, there are a range of exciting projects emerging from EAST 2017 still: a filmmaker and an illustrator from Kenya have teamed up with Salooni, a Ugandan multi-disciplinary art project that explores black women\u2019s hair practices through installation, film, performance and photography; an illustrator and filmmaker are creating a sci-fi animation about their experience; a Ugandan drummer, Kenyan performance artist and photographer are developing their final performance; and a group of artists\u2019 planned a showcase of new work in Kampala for April 2017. It was a unique and impactful journey for many of the artistic travelers and the whole creative collective that emerged from this continues to build EAST moving forward.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThank you Soul Train for creating a context that allowed me and many other people to [re]connect more and more profoundly with our creative selves. It\u2019s been a safe haven this journey, where masks could fall off, boundaries were challenged and pushed and redrawn, discoveries made, magic happened. Thanks for allowing the messiness of creative processes and trusting artists to do what they are best at, create and inspire.<\/em>\u201d \u201cI spent yester-week with a collective of some of the most beautiful creatives on historic train tracks built by our ancestors. It was a wonderful learning experience for me, full of collaboration, hard work and growth. I feel so complete, enriched and blessed. I\u2019m still processing it all but one thing is for sure, my life will never be the same.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0 Here\u2019s another collaborative video artwork that resulted from EAST2017: \u201cSpeak Soon\u201d by Nikissi Serumaga<\/strong><\/a>, a short about leaving things behind and trying your best to move to the next part of your life with grace (filmed as it was happening).<\/p>\n For more impressions please visit the Facebook page<\/strong><\/a><\/strong> and Instagram<\/strong> @eastsoultrain. You can also find more images, videos and testimonies under #EAST2017 and #kovusafarini on both platforms.<\/p>\n Or read : http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/culture-2\/east-african-soul-train-kenya-artist-residency<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n De hedendaagse kunstscene in Oost-Afrika is divers en bruist van energie, wat vaak onopgemerkt blijft bij een internationaal publiek en bezoekers. Maar deze situatie verandert geleidelijk dankzij nieuwe initiatieven die kunstenaars uit verschillende landen samenbrengen en profiteren van regionale en internationale reikwijdte.<\/p>\n
\n[\/This article is the result of a collective effort by Anne Mwiti, Geraldine Hepp and Poppy Spowage.<\/em>\/]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/africalia.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/EAST1-1100x733-jpg.webp\")
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\n\u00a9 Bwette photography<\/p>\n
\nArtist, East African Soul Train 2017<\/p>\n
\nArtist, East African Soul Train 2017
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\nOne of the collaborative artworks that emerged from this project is \u201cX EAR X\u201d<\/strong> by filmmaker Emily McCartney <\/strong><\/a>, featuring dancers Jackie Manyaapelo (South Africa) and Adam Cheinjo (Kenya) with music by Jinku (Kenya) and Ken Mvvalye (Uganda) \/ (E.A.R. = East African Railway).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/africalia.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170204_110551-1100x928-jpg.webp\")
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\n\u00a9<\/span> Africalia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"