Project aim

The project "Faces and Masks - the interwoven relation" focuses on creative dialogue. Artists from Africa and Europe work together and respond to the respective cultural history of masks. It aims to be more than an art project - it is an invitation to shed new light on the narratives anchored in the deepest heart of cultural identity and to re-establish dialogues at eye level.

It is a common quest for recognition and understanding that respectfully centres on the creation of new works of art.

Through a creative workshop, personal and family stories are collected to explore commonalities and engage in an exchange that transcends national and cultural boundaries.

A curated exhibition shows the newly created works, running parallel to historical masks. This exhibition will take place in an African city. The connection between cultures that emerges in this creative exchange shows how artists can bridge the gap between cultures, gain understanding and create new perspectives.

contains excerpts from Ila Wingen's concept

Method

Different artistic approaches can be combined within the framework of a one-week workshop. A direct reaction to each other's work is encouraged. In the best case scenario, joint works of art are created. The participating artists come from Africa and Europe.

Cultural sovereignty is dissolved and a creative commonality becomes visible.

During the lab, oral storytelling plays an important role in the artistic development. Personal, family stories and memories of and about masks from the participants' own cultures are exchanged and similarities are explored.
New, different, shared masks are created.

contains excerpts from Ila Wingen's concept

Goal

The aim is to organise an exhibition of these newly created objects, images and worlds of thought in combination with historical masks and any existing works by the participating artists that relate to the theme. The exhibition in Africa shows the developed works. It is a cultural exchange through art pieces.

Realisation

This project is a collaboration of GLAM Wikimedia CH and the Nairobi Gallery. The project has been realized by Sandra Becker (GLAM Lead Wikimedia CH), Ila Wingen (curator for Switzerland), Anthony Odera (curator for Kenya) and Rose Musyoki (logistics Kenya).

Participants

Ila Wingen — Curator
Medea7 — (GLAM Programme Lead Wikimedia CH)

Anthony Odera(Curator Nairobi Gallery)
Rose Musyoki (Writer and Researcher)
Tracy Buyanzi— Artist
Kairos Futura— Artist
Mwas Githinji— Artist
Heraa 090— Artist
Khalid Shatta — Artist
Laura Arminda Kingsley — Artist
Elisabeth Masé — Artist
Ursina Gabriela Roesch — Artist

Results

Historical Works in Dialogue With Contemporary Works


Mask	Country and Origin	Faces and MasksːThe Interwooven Relation	Artist & Dialogue Focus
Mukishi-Hamba Pwo Mask	Chokwe people\| 'Mozambique & Congo' Matrilineal lineage and honoring women in society. Traditionally worn and performed by men to honor ideal womanhood, female ancestors, and fertility.	She-Devil Video Installation	Laura Arminda Kingsley Theme: Reclaiming Gender & Carnival Resistance Honors the rebellion of Dominican Carnival's Diablos Cojuelos while reclaiming gendered masquerade traditions to turn the body into a site of liberation and self-determination while reclaiming gendered masquerade traditions to turn the body into a site of liberation and self-determination.
Mijikenda Vigango	Mijikenda People (Coastal Kenya) Sacred wooden memorial statues erected to honor revered ancestors and departe, embodying spiritual presence and lineage.	Mizimu ya Kesho	Tracy Berryl Buyanzi Theme: Ancestral Lineage & Future Spirits Explores bodily identity, oral memory, and ancestral presence (Mizimu ya Kesho / Spirits of Tomorrow), creating a contemporary dialogue on memory and spiritual inheritance.
Baoule Ram Mask	Côte d'Ivoire (Akan People) Connection to land, goli gbagba dance traditions, and ancestral spiritual practices.	Losing My Religion II	Mwass Githinji Theme: Indigenous Knowledge & Spiritual Encounter Reflects on the legacy of Kikuyu healer Waing’a, examining the displacement of ancestral knowledge during colonial missionary encounters and reclaiming authority over faith and cultural memory.
Wooden Moon Mask	Congo Used in ceremonial practices and new moon dances. The white pigment evokes lunar cycles, spiritual renewal, and cosmic alignment.	Gods in Action 1	Contemporary Dialogue Cohort Theme: Spiritual Embodiment & Ritual Motion Explores divine presence, action, and active mythology in direct conversation with traditional lunar and ritual masks.
Bamileke Mask	Cameroon (Grassfields Region) Symbol of royal authority, chiefdoms, secret societies, and governance structures.	Nairobi Space Station Collection Lamu Space Station (Helmet ya Mwanangaa)	Kairos Futura (Kinguru & Ajax Axe) Theme: Authority, Resistance & Speculative Futures • Nairobi Space Station (Jua Kali Masks by Kinguru): Inspired by local charcoal stoves (jikos), set in dystopian 2099 Kanairo to represent freedom through identity-shedding and resourcefulness. • Lamu Space Station (Helmet ya Mwanangaa by Ajax Axe): Crafted with Swahili artisans to subvert billionaire space colonization narratives, honoring local ecology and traditional coastal craftsmanship.
Baoule Mblo Mask Okunyi Spirit Mask	West Africa (Baule & Okunyi Contexts) Serene facial portraiture and spirit representations featuring calm, contemplative features that honor individual beauty, spiritual dignity, and shared ancestry.	Tribe as a Weapon	Heraa Hassan Theme: Facial Identity, Stereotyping & Political Weaponization Enters into dialogue with the calm, idealized facial features of traditional portrait masks by interrogating how human faces, facial features, and ethnic identities in Sudan are read, stereotyped, and weaponized into tools of political oppression and war.

Explore the Murumbi heritage collection here.

Main Exhibition Page -Wikimedia CH/GLAM/Faces and Masks: The Interwoven Relation

Contemporary Dialogue

The project Faces and Masks: The Interwoven Relation opened its doors to the public on 10 July at the Nairobi Gallery. Also known as the Murumbi Heritage Collection, the Nairobi Gallery houses thousands of works from the collection of Kenya’s second Vice President, Mr Joseph Murumbi. As a GLAM project, Faces and Masks: The Interwoven Relation drew from these historical archives to explore their contemporary relevance.

Information board of Nairobi Gallery
One of the gates of Nairobi Gallery
Building exterior of Nairobi Gallery
Point Zero, Nairobi Gallery (a view from the entry pathway)

Artistic dialogue emerges as the main tool anchoring these stories together. The artists tackle themes of migration and displacement, spirituality, oral traditions, the spread of Christianity, Afrofuturism, ancestral communal worship, the history of carnivals, self-care, social perception and nostalgia. At the entrance, Heraa Hassan’s colourful clay works, Tribe as a Weapon, respond to the ongoing war in Sudan and the experiences of displacement. Her figures, separated by borders and colour, offer a vigil to those affected by the conflict. This use of colour leads into Ila Wingen’s bright yellow work, where obscured eyes shift our perception of what and how we see, creating a dialogue between the two works.

Works in Dialogue: Heraa Hassan & Ila Wingen
Works in Dialogue: Khalid Shatta (left) & Heraa Hassan
Works in Dialogue: Ila Wingen (left) & Khalid Shatta

Throughout the exhibition, Khalid Shatta’s Gods in Action and Ursina’s work act as anchors. They honour expressions of the divine and the self through creative practice and self-care. Together, the works consider the body and creative practice as ways of experiencing and connecting with the divine. While Ursina honours the body through care, Khalid explores how communities experience and express the divine through art, music, dance, rituals and their surroundings.

Works in dialogue
Works in dialogue: Heraa's works (far left) pictured alongside Khalid Shatta’s works (right)
Works in Dialogue: Jua Kali Masks by Kairos Futura pictured alongside Ursina’s work

Mwass Githinji’s Losing My Religion and Elisabeth Mase’s The Evil Child enter into dialogue through how identity can be shaped and imposed by others. Githinji revisits the story of Wainga, whose traditional healing practices were labelled as evil during the spread of Christianity, while Mase explores a child constantly shifting between playful, angry, vulnerable and tender states.

Works in dialogue: Mwass Githinji (far left) pictured next to Kairos Futura installation of Nairobi Space Station (Jua Kali Masks) and the Lamu Space Station (Helmet ya Mwangaa)
Works in Dialogue: Tracy Buyanzi’s installation pictured alongside Elizabeth Masè’s works and Khalid Shatta’s artwork
Installation Images of Ursina’s works for Faces and Masks, Nairobi
Losing my religion artwork

From identities imposed upon us, the dialogue moves towards reclamation through Ajax Axe’s Helmet ya mwanangaa and Daniel Nuru’s Nairobi Space Station. Through their use of local materials, craftsmanship and community knowledge, the works emphasise the possibility of reclaiming identity, holding onto what is ours and using it to navigate new environments and create our own futures.

Works in Dialogue: Losing my religion by Mwass Githinji alongside Helmet Ya Mwangaa masks by Kairos Futura
Losing my Religion by Mwass Githinji on display at the Nairobi Gallery
Heraa Hassan's Tribe as a Weapon pictured next to the Kairos Futura installation Helmet ya Mwanangaa
Works in Dialogue: Jua Kali Masks by Kairos Futura pictured alongside Ursina’s work

This idea of carrying identity forward extends into Tracy Buyanzi’s installation, Laura’s She Devil and Sandra’s submissions, which honour, celebrate and question the histories, purposes and meanings attached to masks across cultures. Tracy’s installation brings the Mapiko masks of the Makonde community in Tanzania into conversation with traditional vigango sculptures, while Laura’s She Devil questions the gendered restrictions surrounding the Diablos Cojuelos masks of Dominican Carnival. Her work is placed in dialogue with the Mukishi Hamba Pwo mask from the Murumbi Heritage Collection, traditionally worn by men to honour the grace of women. Sandra’s Venetian, Italian and traditional masquerade masks extend this conversation by placing the mask directly over the human face, suggesting that identity and disguise cannot always be separated.

Works in Dialogue: right side view of Tracy Buyanzi’s installation pictured alongside Ursina’s works
Side view of Mizimu ya Kesho by Tracy Buyanzi
Installation images of Tracy Buyanzi’s Mizimu ya Kesho (The Spirits of Tomorrow)
Works in Dialogue: Sandra Becker’s artwork alongside Khalid Shatta’s works and Tracy Buyanzi’s installation at Nairobi Gallery
Works in Dialogue: Tracy’s Mizimu ya Kesho and Laura’s video installation
Faces and Masks exhibition in Nairobi
Works in Dialogue: Sandra Becker, Heraa Hassan, and Ila Wingens work

The exhibition concluded on 31 July with a sense of reverence: for the archives and the artisans who came before us; for the present, where artists continue to honour, question and draw inspiration from stories that refuse to go untold; and for the future, where these histories can become a foundation for forging new paths for ourselves and our communities. ltimately, through its emphasis on creative dialogue, Faces and Masks: The Interwoven Relation becomes an intervention within the Nairobi Gallery, celebrating its role in preserving the past while opening its archives to new contemporary interpretations.

Exhibition Opening Highlights

The exhibition officially opened on July 10, 2026, at the Nairobi Gallery, bringing together participating artists, local guests, curators, and cultural community members.

Exhibition opening gathering at the Nairobi Gallery
Visitors exploring the exhibition space during the opening
Opening event attendees at the Nairobi Gallery
Faces and Masks exhibition opening reception
Opening reception gathering in the exhibition galleries
Artist walkabout with Mwass Githinji and guests during the opening reception
Tracy Berryl Buyanzi engaging with guests at the opening
Guests touring the curated installations inside the Nairobi Gallery
Exhibition visitors exploring cross-cultural artworks
Faces and Masks exhibition opening reception at the Nairobi Gallery

Highlights & Attendance

The exhibition successfully ran at the Nairobi Gallery from 10 July to 31 July 2026.

Opening Ceremony Visitors: over 50 guests attended the opening reception on July 10, including local artists, cultural partners, and international visitors.
Total Visitors: 200 visitors toured the exhibition during its 3-week run.
Full Exhibition Page: See the main subpage: Faces and Masks: The Interwoven Relation Exhibition Page.

Press Coverage & Media

Featured Articles & Publications

Africa Art News: "The Face Behind the Mask and the Mask Behind the Face"
Africa Art News: "Faces and Masks: Rethinking Identity, Memory, and Visibility at Nairobi Gallery"
InNairobi: "Faces & Masks: The Interwoven Relation Exhibition Coverage"

Social Media & Digital Features

Instagram Highlights: Photo feature and exhibition highlights on Instagram

Wiki Profiles Created / Updated

The project has successfully documented and linked the complete cohort of participating international creators:

Khalid Shatta — English Wikipedia Article
Laura Arminda Kingsley — German Wikipedia Article
Kairos Futura — English Wikipedia Article
Tracy Buyanzi — Wikimedia Commons User Page
Mwas Githinji — English Wikipedia Article
Heraa 090 — Wikimedia Commons User Page
Ila Wingen — Wiki Page

Pre-Existing Wiki Pages

Ursina Gabriela Roesch — German Wikipedia Article
Sandra Becker — German Wikipedia Article
Elisabeth Masé — German Wikipedia Article

Repository Hub

All uploaded images, studio process documentations, and installation media can be found in this category on Wiki Commons:
- Faces and Masks exhibition at Nairobi Gallery