Café Curiosité III - 25-06-2009
Focus on Rwanda
In the Café Curiosité series, SICA highlights art and culture from areas around the world that rarely make it to the mainstream media. In this third edition in the Café Curiosité series, organised by SICA and Prins Claus Fund, Rwandese actress, writer and cultural manager Odile Gakire Katese is interviewed on the role of art in rebuilding communities after traumatic experiences. Please note that this meeting will take place in Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder in Amsterdam.
Odile Gakire Katese
For this third edition of Café Curiosité, SICA and the Prince Claus Fund have invited Rwandese actress, writer and cultural manager Odile Gakire Katese to talk about her numerous artistic activities that deal with the trauma of genocide in Rwanda. Odile Gakire Katese is deputy director in charge of artistic activities at the University Centre for Arts and Drama of the National University of Rwanda, which is a Network Partner of the Prince Claus Fund. This Centre aims to stimulate artistic talent, to prevent and manage conflicts, and to enhance positive values through a strategy of cultural actions. An example of one of Gakire Katese's projects from UCAD is Ingoma Nshya, a group of eight female drummers who will be performing in the Netherlands, starting 28 May, as well as taking part in the Festival Mundial in Tilburg on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June. Ingoma Nshya has given women a voice in the cultural landscape of Rwanda, and allowed them to speak out about their female identity and their traumatic past. In recent years Odile Gakire Katese has also presented Des Espoirs (Hopes) throughout her country. This show, which mixes theatre and dance, is a testimony to humankind’s ability to rebuild itself, even after a trauma. Gakire Katese also wrote and co-directed the short film Isugi in which a young girl, who survived the genocide, is living with the memory of her deceased parents and suffers harassment from her adoptive father.
Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder/ Our Lord in the Attic
The interview with mrs. Gakire Katese will be held in the heart of Amsterdam, where in its bustling centre lies one of the city’s oldest museums: our Lord in the Attic. The attic church was built at a time when the Catholic religion was officially banned: from the outside it was impossible to see that this remarkable house contained a secret church. With displays of paintings, sculpture and silverware the museum shows how Catholics lived in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. The address of the museum is Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40. Here, you will find more information on this location and directions.
Prince Claus Fund and SICA are looking forward to seeing you on 25 June. For more information about the series please check www.sica.nl or www.princeclausfund.org
In the Café Curiosité series, SICA highlights art and culture from areas around the world that rarely make it to the mainstream media. The one-hour Café Curiosité sessions focus on a special international guest who speaks in depth about their expertise and the cultural life of their country. Each Café Curiosité takes place at a surprising location and will be organised in close collaboration with a fellow cultural organisation.
