Ontario Science Centre, Procter & Gamble Great Hall (770 Don Mills Rd.)
July 11-14, 2019
FREE with Vector Festival All Access Pass

African Space Dream animation depicts the Moon landing of an imaginary space ship designed by Milumbe Haimbe, based on the true story about a Zambian science teacher Edward Mukuka Nkoloso, who founded the Zambia National Academy of Space Research In 1964. Nkoloso’s plan was to send a school girl, two cats and a missionary to Mars. His rather unorthodox training methods included placing young astronauts-in-training in big drums and rolling them down a hill or stream to simulate zero-gravity. His space mission failed to lift off, but Nkoloso’s legacy endured in the collective consciousness of Zambians, and so did the socio-political factors that were at play behind Nkoloso’s lofty ambitions.

This project was produced as part of Idea Projects, Ontario Science Centre’s partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. Idea Projects provides studio residencies to artists exploring science and technology through art. Uniting two forms of inquiry reveals the potential for scientific and artistic collaborations to reimagine the global landscape.

About the Artist

Milumbe Haimbe is a visual artist interested in exploring diversity in popular culture. Her work combines drawing, illustration, video, and 3D modeling. She has exhibited her work at FOCUS 10 – Art Basel in Switzerland, and is an alumnus of the Art Omi International Artist’s Residency in New York, as well as the recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington DC. Haimbe exhibited in the Biennale for Contemporary African Art in Dakar, 2014, and is a recipient of the 2015 Bellagio Arts Fellowship Award, the Astraea Global Arts Fund, and the Lauréate du prix de la Fondation Blachère.
 

Image: Milumbe Haimbe, still from African Space Dream.