Global exhibition 'The Great Repair: umunyu' makes historic African debut in Nairobi

An international exhibition tilted The Great Repair: umunyu presented by Munyu Space in collaboration with ARCH+, will run in Nairobi from 30 July to 25 October at Munyu Space, located in the basement and mezzanine of The Mall, Westlands.

The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Sebastian Groth, Head of Cultural Affairs and Education at the German Embassy, Kerstin Pfirrmann announced the exhibition on July 1 at the German Residence in Muthaiga, Nairobi.

The exhibition brings together artists, architects, designers, researchers, and community practitioners from Kenya and around the world to explore repair as a social, ecological, and cultural practice.

Through acts of care, maintenance, stewardship, rebuilding, and collective responsibility, it asks what it means to repair a world in constant transition.

Participating Kenyan artists are Abdul Rop and Daniel Nuru of Kairos Futura; Lutivini Majanja; Anthony Muisyo; Dr Lydia Muthuma; James Muriuki; Mũthoni Mwangi; Rosie Olang; Sharon Neema; Shabu Mwangi; and Ngugi Waweru of Wajukuu Artists' Collective.

They are joined by an international lineup that includes Sheila Nakitende, Limbo Accra, Omi Collective and Mogasam; Kader Attia; Atelier Bow-Wow and Tsukamoto Laboratory of the Tokyo Institute of Technology; Cave Bureau; Manuel Chavajay; Jonathan Fraser; Prof. Florian Hertweck with Hamza Haidam and Julia Anna Paszkot; Sam Hopkins; Dr Makau Kitata and Prof. Kenny Cupers; Dr Margaret Ngima Macharia Kedogo; the PEARLS Project; the University of Nairobi Bachelor of Architecture Fifth Year Studio; Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser; Marjetica Potrč; Bas Princen; Social Justice Centres Travelling Theatre; Center for Spatial Technology; Mierle Laderman Ukeles; and Khalid Yuutdem.

The exhibition was conceived by ARCH+, together with Prof. Milica Topalovic of ETH Zurich and Prof. Florian Hertweck of the University of Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Akademie der Künste. It has previously been presented in Berlin, Paris, and Malmö. Supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Nairobi edition marks its first presentation in Africa and has been developed in collaboration with Munyu Space.

Featuring works from previous editions alongside newly commissioned projects, the exhibition examines how repair can shape communities, landscapes, institutions, and everyday life. Through architecture, art, and spatial practice, it explores the relationship between growth and ecology while proposing repair as a new way of thinking about how people live together.

The Nairobi edition draws inspiration from munyu, a traditional salt made from the ashes of plant matter and embedded in everyday systems of care, sustenance, and resourcefulness.

Munyu Space curator Joy Mala says the concept of umunyu understands repair as a way of living rather than a one-time act.

"It proposes transformation instead of restoration, encouraging new ways of thinking about how people inhabit space, relate to one another, and care for the environments they share," she says.

Since launching The Great Repair in 2022, the ARCH+ team has reflected on the rise of authoritarianism, militarisation, and reactionary politics, while concern for climate change and biodiversity loss has diminished. The team argues that repair begins by recognising and supporting the efforts already taking place within communities instead of replacing them with new interventions.

Alongside the exhibition, Umunyu: Acts of Repair, a public programme supported by the Agency for International Museum Cooperation, will take place at venues across Nairobi. It will include talks, workshops, excursions, performances, screenings, artist-led walks, community engagements, and public conversations exploring environmental justice, decolonisation, museum futures, maintenance and mending, urban transformation, collective memory, and speculative futures.

The official opening ceremony will take place on July 30, at The Mall, Westlands, followed by exhibition walkabouts, performances, public programmes, and networking events.