Go Forward

Go Forward is a work in progress installation that is part of Andrea Stultiens’ PhD research. It is the English translation of ‘Simuda Nyuma’, the Luganda title of a book triptych written by Ham Mukasa. The starting point for the exposition is a collection of photographs from the Ham Mukasa family archive. The presentation includes contributions by a range of Ugandan artists, and Ugandan and Dutch art students, invited by Stultiens to interpret specific moments and phenomena in history that were described by Ham Mukasa from their own vantage point.

Ham Mukasa (ca.1870-1956) was an important chief. An early literate and Christian convert, he wrote about the history he was part of. Stultiens found a list of described images that should have accompanied his writings on the reigns of three kings of the Buganda Kingdom. However, as far as Stultiens could see, these illustrations had not yet been made. The list became an open invitation to think about the history described.