Yao | KAMWOKYA TRESOR LEARNING CENTRE
By Mona Okulla Obua
YAO is an immersive video installation rooted in a personal take on Lango ancestry. Sound, poetry and sensory visuals transport us to the village of Otuke where we witness the artistry in making Moo Yao (Shea oil). YAO invites visitors to reflect on concepts of womanhood, resilience and community whilst weaving a curtain made of nut-shells in a co-participatory performance led by the artist over two sessions.

Mona’s KLA ART ’24 Participation is supported by FGF

Mona Okulla Obua is a German-Ugandan director, poet and visual artist. She graduated from Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg in 2017. Topics of her work are diasporic identities, the filmic decolonization of black and biracial bodies, nature, spirituality and afro-surrealism. She explores the medium of film through an experimental lens, implementing poetry in images and words. Identifying as multidisciplinary, she sees each art form that she masters as a fluid entity that molds into and inspires the other. Her most recent short film INDIGO centers the experience of black German woman in front and behind the camera. INDIGO won the Special Prize at the International Short Film Festival, Berlin and the 2nd Place at Monologues & Poetry International Film Fest, USA in 2023. She recently relocated to Kampala.