‘INTERNATIONAL FORUM’

The city of Kigali is growing as a business, convention, tourism and investment destination. Its national, regional and international capital status deserves a cultural offer on a par with its economic achievements and ambitions. A proper central infrastructure for cultural expression and creativity, accessible to creative industry professionals and consumers, can reinforce Rwanda's new unified cultural identity and allow Kigali to become a cultural capital.

This Forum intends to gather African and international multidisciplinary expertise to present a preliminary mapping of buildings that could be convertible into cultural infrastructure in Kigali. It also aims to link economy and culture for a more sustainable, creative and inclusive economic growth by articulating win-win combinations of multifunctional commercial, cultural, or real estate models of management.

Programme :

1.  A keynote presentation by Prof. Lesley Lokko of the University of Johannesburg;
2.  Presentations on visions for cultural spaces by representatives of all disciplines of the Rwandan creative sector with a.o actress Carole Karemera, architect Christian Benimana, filmmaker Joel Karekezi, fashion designer Cedric Mizero, cultural entrepreneur Amin Gafaranga, choreographer Wesley Ruzibiza, poet/slam artist Lion King, visual artist Epa Binamungu;
3.  Presentations of reference projects from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Hamburg, Lagos, Douala, Accra and Brussels;
4.  Presentation of a recent mapping of existing and potential cultural spaces in Kigali & adaptive reuse scenarios developed by architecture students;
5.  Presentations of new publications on Zanzibar and Kigali;
6.  Presentations on sustainable urban development by a.o. UN Habitat’s Shipra Narang Suri.