Copy of Portfolio - Bruce Niyonkuru Canda

Canda

portfolio

Creative Director & Artist

candanb.my.canva.site/home

Community

PROJECTS

October 2023: Studio Verde Residency Program “the NItii APA” in Maasai Mara, Kenya

Community

PROJECTS

The program was centered around the concept of the stories café, Netii Apa. A place which was not yet existed in material form at Nashulai but is where stories was captured, planted, and performed.

The first half of the residency was a space to receive, listen, ask questions and explore. The second half will have space for collaborative co-creation, and share our offerings with the community.

some of the practices and topics of discussion that was shared by/with the community:

+Rites of passage

+Medicinal plants

+Contemporary challenges

+Adaptations of ancient practices

Community

PROJECTS

October 2023: Studio Verde Residency Program “the NItii APA” in Maasai Mara, Kenya

Imiyenzi, Crying Milk

Video (2023)

Community

PROJECTS

art, humans & universe + (2021)

https://www.kuuruart.space/art-humans-universe

Art, Humans & Universe + is a concept I initiated through Kuuru Art Space. We teamed up with different agronomy experts from different parts in Rwanda to research and collect different types of soil in Rwanda. We went for this idea because we tend to forget the importance of soil. It is the source of our life. The mother of nature that feeds us every single day.

This project consisted of three phases. During the first phase, we traveled to different places in Rwanda. We collected several types of soil such as loam and volcanic. While traveling, we had the honor to meet different farmers and experts who shared their expertise.

The second phase consisted of a 2-days workshop with different Rwandan artists. Throughan open call, we selected 12 upcoming artists from different mediums. The aim of the workshop was to connect with soil and creating artworks. During the workshop, we experimented with different elements: an art therapy with soil, sketching exercises, and a masterclass on the performance of soil.

The third phase was the exhibition. We showcased different artworks from the artists, and two installations. The main installation was 3 greenhouses of an initiative irrigation process with recycled materials. In this greenhouse, we planted different seeds together with the participants of the workshop.

Africalia Belgium was the main sponsor of this project.

Community

PROJECTS

ba and ba movement (2019 - present)

Ba and Ba is a movement to contribute to peace, developmentand reconciliation, which can serve as a model for international peace movements. We do artistic performances during the commemoration of the Genocide against Tutsi’s period in April, using elements from theatre, poetry and livesculpturing with clay. We work with young Rwandan artists below the age of 18 on these performances.

Community

PROJECTS

art educator (2016 - present)

I strongly believe arts can change lives and is a powerful tool in education. Since my first residency with Martinschule in Mainz, Germany, I’ve been educating different disciplines of arts to students from Pre-K to university students in Rwanda, Germany, and U.S.

Community

PROJECTS

tuko girls art (2015 - 2018)

Tuko Girls Art is a Rwandan NGO that I founded in 2015. This NGO consists of 25 women between 16 and 25 years old. Its aim is to bring young talented women together to empower themselves by pursuing their talents and passion for art. The NGO gives them the opportunity to work in different areas such as fine art, afro-futuristic dance, hand crafts art and digital art. We want to make a positive contribution by reducing the gender gap in the art scene and serve as a model for other young and talented women in our community From 2018, the girls are managing Tuko by themselves with a craft store in Kigali.

Community

PROJECTS

NTIZIMIRE FUTURE ARTS (2014 - 2018)

Ntizimire Future Art main objective is to give art therapy to children who were living on the streets of Kigali and are now in transit centers for a process to get back into the community. This project has successfully helped many children to reunite with their families and express themselves in an artistic way such as drawings, paintings, body paintings, and murals. The transit center we worked with unfortunately had to close down in 2018, but we continued by holding sessions once a month at Kuuru with a bigger group of children and more artists from different disciplines to encourage more creativity for the children.

Virtual

PROJECTS

milele museum (2021 - pRESENT)

Will the future generation show interest in their true heritage with the current way of working at schools and cultural institutions? Often, stolen artifacts have no meaning anymore as the stories are demolished and Westernized. It is such a shame that because of this, future generations will have a harder time to get closer to their roots. We are living in times where people find the majority of information on the internet. This is why we have come up with this idea to make cultural heritage more accessible for us and the next generations.

Milele Museum is a virtual museum where artifacts are digitzed and displayed in environments that are designed based on research while using afrofuturistic elements. We are creating interactive ways of storytelling and are engaging African communities with AR/VR technology. We are currently working on the research with various African and European museums and institutions.

We are aiming to launch in 2023. Want to stay tuned and know more about our work? Follow us on our social media

www.instagram.com/milelemuseum/

www.facebook.com/milelemuseum

www.twitter.com/milelemuseum

Virtual

PROJECTS

space and mind virtual exhibition (2020)

Throughout the long and isolated months of the global pandemic, a necessity, a social need opened doors and minds for what modern digital technologies have to offer. I have curated the first Rwandan permanent virtual exhibition. This exhibition consists of 18 young Rwandan based artists in November 2020 with different art mediums. The title of this exhibition, SPACE & MIND, is to challenge the artists and audience to use their minds to go beyond the spaces that they already are comfortable with. The aim was to take advantage of a fiction space and contribute in finding solutions for the pandemic effects both economically and mentally among the creative industry

Click here to go to the virtual exhibition.