l was dying when the thing l loved came around and saved me. Believing in Art, aesthetics, softness and gentleness always seemed like a far-fetched dream to a villager like me ( l am a poor native from a little village called Kyazanga in Lwengo District. )
When l woke up one day and told my friends l was going to be a Writer instead of a Software Engineer, even l knew l was cutting my own road to poverty and depression.
But then KLA ART Festival 2021 running from 21st October to 5th November happened, l was almost dying, almost giving up on love, almost putting a pillow over my head, for it all to stop, and at this festival l met so many cool artists such as Kanyike Edgar, Martin Kharumwa, Gloria Kiconco, Trevor Aloka, Odur Ronald, and others and l definitely no longer want to die, l want to be happy because if creators still exist, then l exist, then creation exists.
In her opening speech of the festival, on the hazy rainy Thursday morning, of the 21st October, 32 ° East Ugandan Arts Trust Director, Teesa Bahana told the audience who had come to see the first installation, NATURE INVASION by Jacqueline Katesi, of the challenges that Helen back the KLA ART Festival From happening back in 2020 as it had been scheduled. With the surge of the pandemic, mostly artists, organizations, and most departments moved their activities to online spaces, but KLA ART Festival could not, because KLA ART is one initiative the 32 ° East Ugandan Art Trust is making Art for the public, in public spaces, in places far outside what we commonly think of the art world, and so a bottleneck held back the festival from happening for a whole two years. A joy it was that it was finally happening.
This was the 4th Edition of KLA ART and it was my first time attending something like this. And just like l mentioned in my introduction, a Ugandan Native of Kyazanga Village in Lwengo District, coming to Kampala for the first time later in life, a bit older, l knew it in my heart that Kampala is my capital city, l should definitely enjoy it, but it takes a lot for a young adult like me to fit in, to walk comfortably on the streets, more so given the ongoing recurring event and of the past two years, the COVID-19 restrictions, a whole two lockdowns, the ever endearing curfews, we have been constricted, held back, locked away, and so when l stood there on the opening day of KLA ART 21 on that hazy rainy beautiful Thursday morning and Teesa Bahana mentioned the theme of this year’s festival as THIS IS OURS under the notion of creating something big, something that really speaks to all the things that public Art means to us and also what the city means to us as well, l felt happy. She went on to describe how sometimes you feel a bit tense, there are spaces which don’t feel like they are ours, even though it’s our city Andy how do we reclaim that space?