African identities. African identities Arts, Culture and Sport. Nancy Onyango: What is the impetus of this show? Violet Nantume : I had a conversation on Facebook about self satisfaction and sex, a day later it was put down by Facebook as someone had flagged it pornography. We wanted to have a space to think about sex. Personally I felt I had a lot to learn about sexuality, gender and desire. It was important to know what people think about these topics, package it into concept artists could work with as a starting point.
Particularly, Uganda has limited show spaces for art and is not sufficient to serve the growing number of practicing artists. Under Ground Contemporary Art Space is a new alternative space to directly work with artists and present their work.
The onus is on us to create alternative spaces to engage and showcase artworks. Under Ground is a space we felt comfortable to organically work with a topic dealing with sex, pleasure and desire. And we hope we can do more projects with it in the next five years. Nancy Onyango: As Africans, we are always trapped in the closet. Sex has always been a taboo subject. How do you intend to break this barrier with this project? Violet Nantume : Basically it is to encourage dialogue in public forum.
We hope that the exhibition creates a platform where we can interact and exchange ideas. Many that saw the exhibition were open to the various notions of intimacy, eroticism and sexual desire in the gallery space. While sex is a taboo subject, we need more openness regarding intimacy to avoid the rampant violence going on.
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The ownership of our bodies by patriarchal authorities forces us into closets, but also creates a situation in which rape- as opposed to intimacy β is encouraged. If we are to go beyond sex as a taboo, we need to discuss the freedoms of our bodies beyond the control of the institutions that legitimize our participation in society, particularly the schools.
