In 2016, the 2nd edition of Kampala Biennale was titled Seven Hills, an inquiry and interest in the on mobilities and transformations in Kampala. Which was my first experience to walk in Kampala as I looked for exhibitions distributed across the city. Perhaps up and down some of the hills but not really aware. The Walk Talk Write workshop was one of the events of the KLAART festival in August of 2018, in which we began early 32 degrees East. In a cramped studio and library, we listened to a presentation about Open school East and afterwards began a walk of the seven hills of Kampala. The group that had collected at 32, mostly comprising of artists participating in the KLAART events and the organizers, began to fragment into smaller clusters as we walked. I was walking with Kevo Stero, talking about our colleagues back in Nairobi and our relationships with them. The first stop was at the church in the Rubaga hill, the parent cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala.
We listened briefly about the work, times and experiences of the installation of the Catholic mission in Kampala and East Africa and through the facilitation of Open School East split further to make selections of objects, buildings, installations, people in the compound that we could relate to or see. We individually made notes, we made contact with those through writing. In a way to proceed, we went down and up towards the second hill, but before we could get there, stopped at a restaurant to have lunch together.
At this point, I had pain in my lower body and was afraid to walk any further, I asked Kevo Stero if he could find a way to get me back to Palm Vistas where we had been staying. We shared a boda ride back, speaking in metaphors about the wildebeest’s migration and the moon.
Words by Jepkorir Rose Kiptum