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Artist Walter Kitundu brings modern day Tanzania to California Academy of Sciences’ African Hall with immersive installation Leo na Kesho (today and tomorrow)
Exhibit interrupts a familiar presentation of biodiversity, injects a view into modern, urban life in Africa.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (February 2, 2023)— Beginning February 6, 2023, the California Academy of Sciences invites visitors to gain a new perspective on the museum’s historic Tusher African Hall with Leo na Kesho (today and tomorrow), an art installation by Tanzanian-American multidisciplinary artist and educator Walter Kitundu. Kitundu created the work as part of his 2021 Academy Osher Fellowship, a program that attracts “thinkers-in-residence” from science, art, design, and policy to help the Academy and the global communities it serves to rethink humanity’s relationship with nature. “It's important to remember that we are part of the natural world,” says Kitundu. “A relational view of nature, as opposed to the idea that we exist outside of that sphere, is vital in generating empathy and connection with the beings and systems on which our future depends.”
Intentionally placed between African Hall’s existing wildlife dioramas, Leo na Kesho infuses the space with an example of contemporary urban life on the continent as represented by a roadside storefront in the bustling Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, Kitundu’s childhood hometown. With a radio softly playing Tanzanian music and colorful household wares set out for locals to buy, Leo na Kesho evokes the feeling of a modern business whose shopkeeper has momentarily stepped away. Details like signage and posters in Swahili and curious crows looking on from their perch above the shop ground the piece in place. Kitundu says, “As a naturalist and birdwatcher, I wanted to include the house crows as another indicator of human presence and movement. They weren't common when I was a kid and now they are everywhere, having displaced the pied crows. Drawing attention to this so-called ‘invasive’ species connects us to the natural world while highlighting our impact on the world around us.”
As he conceived of the installation, Kitundu was struck by the curated view of Africa commonly presented by natural history museums in the West, often without any human presence or nod to the current affairs and multidimensionality of the African continent, which is home to over one billion people and a third of the world’s languages. Leo na Kesho is the artist’s response to this observation, designed to interrupt a familiar presentation of Africa’s biodiversity with an example of the modern, multidimensional human and built environment of Dar es Salaam. The piece urges viewers to thoughtfully examine the presence of humanity as part of the continent's natural and social futures, and stokes visitors’ curiosity to learn more about present-day natural and built environments in Africa.
“I wanted to respond to a host of small signals, present in the language used in the hall and in the visual language of dioramas in general, that can allow the lives of people on the continent to be obscured by skewed narratives of Africa that are prevalent in this society,” says Kitundu. “The work is also deeply personal and weaves a lot of my memories and associations together as I reflect on childhood and the lives of my parents. It's one view selected from a multitude of realities lived by those in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and beyond.”
Photos of Leo na Kesho are available here, credit Gayle Laird © California Academy of Sciences.
