The public defense by visual artist Andrea Stultiens of the research project entitled 'Ebifananyi' takes place in two stages. On 20 November at 12.00 Stultiens will publicly elucidate her artistic work for the Doctoral Examination Committee in the exhibition 'Ebifananyi – Mutualities', at the Gallery of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague. At 16.15 on the same day Stultiens will defend her dissertation in the Senate Chamber of Leiden University.
In Luganda, the widest spoken minority language in Uganda, the word for photographs is ebifananyi. However, the word ebifananyihas a different and wider meaning than the etymological meaning of the word photograph as ‘light drawing’. Ebifananyi literally means ‘things that look like something else’. Ebifananyi are likenesses.
In the research project ‘Ebifananyi’, Stultiens explores the historical context of the particular notion of photographs as ‘likenesses’. She conceives of her artistic practice as research method. As part of this method, Stultiens digitalized many collections of photographs in Uganda that until this moment were not accessible.
Understanding the differences between ‘ebifananyi’ and ‘photographs’ shapes communication about photographs between Luganda and English speakers. Stultiens argues that reflection on the way in which objects and sensible aspects of the surrounding world are conceptualized in different languages will help prevent misunderstandings in communication in general.
PUBLIC DEFENSE ANDREA STULTIENS
20 November 2018 at 12.00
Gallery of the Royal Academy of Art
Prinsessegracht 4, The Hague
20 November 2018 at 16.15
Senate Chamber of the Academy Building
Leiden University, Rapenburg 73
EXHIBITION EBIFANANYI - MUTUALITIES
Gallery of the Royal Academy of Art
8 November – 1 December 2018
Opening hours: Daily 11.00–21.00, Friday 11.00–18.00
Saturday 11.00–16.00, Sunday closed
SUPERVISORS
Prof. dr. Janneke Wesseling, Professor in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts, Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University
Prof. Frans de Ruiter, Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University
dr. Michel Doortmont, reader in International Relations and African Studies, Leiden University, University Groningen
Roy Villevoye, visual artist