Bringing Paris to Kenya: World class art, culture and creativity hub launches

For many Kenyans, the Louvre Museum in France caught their imagination following the publication of Dan Brown’s bestselling book, The Da Vinci Code and the subsequent movie adaptation of the book.

To be sure, the Louvre is among the top museums in the world; a popular tourist destination, drawing millions of visitors each year to France. It is home to some of the world’s most famous artworks, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, among others.

The Louvre is the world’s largest museum, with nearly 73,000 square metres of exhibition space.

Did you know that you do not need to visit Paris in order to experience what the Louvre has to offer? The Alliance Française library in Nairobi will offer you this, for free.

How, you might ask? Through technology, of course! This newly refurbished library has a section where you put on Virtual Reality (VR) headsets and through immersive technology, get a 3D experience as if you are inside the Louvre, as well as 11 other high profile institutions in France, such as Musée d’Orsay, and Centre Pompidou, among others.

Free of charge

According to Denis Mucheru, senior librarian at Alliance Française, a visit to this part of the library, known as Micro-Folie, is free of charge for visitors. “This facility is the first of its kind in Kenya. In Africa, there are only a handful. We are very proud, as Alliance Française to have this kind of facility,” he explains.

Micro-Folie, he adds, is a cultural and digital innovation project developed by the French Ministry of Culture, in partnership with La Villette, aimed at bringing art, culture, and science closer to the people. “It will be showcasing more than 4,500 digitised masterpieces, documents, artefacts from these institutions in France,” says Mucheru.

The space, constructed in the form of a mini amphitheatre with two giant screens, which will be streaming proceedings, can accommodate up to 150 people. It will also host book events, such as launches, discussions, as well as poetry events.

Since 2019, the Alliance Française library has gained a reputation of hosting book related events free of charge, something that has greatly contributed to the growth of the literary space in Kenya. “Before we closed for renovation in September, we hosted a book event every Saturday, which has now resumed after it was officially reopened,” adds Mucheru.

Many self-published authors have found a welcoming partner in the Alliance Française, which has saved them the cost of doing book launches and holding other book-related events.

Once the library was reopened, activities resumed like they had never left. The very first event was ‘Sonnets and Scenes’, by Prose Books (Muthoni Maina) and Prevail (Martin Kigondu), which was held on November 30. This show that included performances in various languages, including sheng, was a tribute to the great Shakespeare.

The first book launch at the library, after its reopening was Mikayi, a memoir by Verah Omwocha, that explores the complexities of womanhood in a constantly evolving society. In the book, Verah, an award-winning author unpacks the intricate layers of womanhood—mother, wife, professional, friend and citizen in a rapidly changing world. Mikayi, means first wife in Luo, was launched on December 6.

The following day, another memoir, American Dreammare, by Mercy Atis, was being launched at the same venue. In this book, Atis, a recording artiste, tells her story from a small village in Kenya to the complex realities of life in America. It also recounts her immigration struggles, enduring homelessness to facing incarceration and deportation.

On December 11, Qwani, a collective of university students from The University of Nairobi, Strathmore University, Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and Catholic University of Eastern Africa, hosted the last poetry reading session of the year.

Last Saturday, December 14, Kenya Scriptwriters Guild, launched a Script Workbook, an important tool that seeks to strengthen script writing skills, enhance creativity in storytelling, as well as providing practical exercises for budding and professional scriptwriters. The book is the collaborative effort of Cajetan Boy, Mildred Achoch, and Elias Nabutete.   

New addition

A new addition and which promises to be a key attraction, at the library, is the Le Hub incubator space, which has four super computers set aside specifically for digital content creators, such as game developers, colourists, sound designers, animators and illustrators for visual development.

To understand how fast and efficient these computers are, John Njeru, an animator at Alliance Française explains that ordinary rendering that ordinarily takes up to one and a half hours on a personal computer takes only four minutes on these machines.

To emphasise this point, David Amolo, a film editor says that for synchronising only a personal computer takes 27 minutes. “On these machines however, a combination of synchronising, editing and rendering a 4k multicam sequence with an output of 40GB takes less than 18 minutes, that’s impressive.” The facility is free of charge for these digital content creators.

This incubation space, built using funds provided by Creation Africa, through the French Embassy, is in appreciation of the fast-changing digital space, which is proving to be a major source of revenue for young people, aligning with the Government’s Talanta Hela initiative.

Mucheru is quick to allay fears that the library only opens its doors to French speaking people. “Actually, we have products that are done in English, especially Campus France and Sciences Po, where Kenyan students have the opportunity to enroll for higher education in French universities, where they can choose to study in English,” adds Mucheru.

Ngunjiri is the curator of Maisha Yetu, a digital Arts and Books media platform