For next Tuesday, Jan. 17, at "The Sands at Nomad" in Diani, the Italian Cultural Institute in Nairobi has organized the last of the presentations of the book by Freddie del Curatolo and Leni Frau dedicated to Kenya's capital city. The book "Nairobi," published by Italian publisher OGzero in the series "The Visible Cities," is paired with a photo exhibition by Maddalena Stefanelli in art Leni Frau, with the same title.
The presentation, scheduled for 5:30 p.m., will be attended by IIC Director Elena Gallenca in addition to the authors.
Admission to the presentation and vernissage of the exhibition is free but by reservation only, by sending an email to iicnairobi@esteri.it by Friday, Jan. 13.
After the presentation and opening of the exhibition, which will be on view throughout the week at The Sands at Nomad, guests will be treated to refreshments.
"Nairobi" chronicles the city through a journey through urban spaces, breaking down the clichés of the Western imagination through visions of images and words that leave no room for do-goodism and compose a precise socio-anthropological portrait. The witnesses of this humanity are cast in the smells, tastes, colors and materials that build the city. Thanks to this materiality, one does not feel the need for risky analysis, but everything is before one's eyes: it is enough to read the tales of anecdotes and events behind the birth of a commercial hub that draws development from the melting pot of heterogeneous communities that make it that "beautiful mess that will never change."
Leni Frau's black-and-white photographs emotionally sharpen the contrasts and fix moments that seem stationary in space and time, in a metropolis that instead is advancing and growing at speeds now unimaginable for the Western world.