ABOUT US

The Livingstone Office for Contemporary Arts (LoCA), founded in 2014 is an artist-initiated non-profit library and research centre based in Livingstone, Zambia. LoCA functions as a collective/collaborative platform for reflections and an experimental think-tank, exploring histories (colonial histories, social and political histories and their legacies) and how they relate to language and contemporary art on both a local and an international context. LoCA strives to raise awareness, facilitate and promote Zambian contemporary art, African art history, and research.

It provides a critical discourse towards urban Zambian contemporary issues through exhibitions, workshops, research projects, artist residence and periodicals. LoCA aims to be a community-driven space where experimental practices and fresh perspectives are fostered and shared among interdisciplinary artists, curators, scholars, cultural workers and audiences in the region.

The team

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Dominic Nshimba

Siisi Nelson

Anawana Haloba

Anawana Haloba is PhD fellow with University of Bergen (KMD). She was educated at Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts in Lusaka, Zambia. Haloba completed her BA at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo 2006, graduate of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and an alumnus of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington DC. Haloba’s work has featured in both solo and group exhibitions, including, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; National Museum of African Arts Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA; the Rauma Biennale, Finland; ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe,Germany; Museum Berardo Collection, Lisbon, Portugal; la Biennale di Venezia, 2009; Sydney Biennale 2008, Australia; Manifesta 7, Bolzano, Italy, the Sharjah Biennial 08, 11 and 14th edition in 2019 in Sharjah, UAE, as well as the biennales in Sao Paulo (2016), Shanghai (2016) and Lyon (2017).

Romeo Gongora

Romeo Gongora is an artist, professor of Critical Approaches to Cultural Diversities at the École des arts visuels et médiatiques of Université du Québec à Montreal and PhD fellow in the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK). Since 2008, he has conducted major collaborative arts projects that interact with the social sphere, integrating politics and pedagogy in the practice of performance. Gongora has shown his work at, amongst others, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (Canada), HISK (Belgium), Centre of Art Torun (Poland), Centre Makan (Jordan) and Leonard&Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Canada). Www.Romeogongora.Com

Dominic Nshimba

Dominic Nshimba is a full-stack developer based in Livingstone, Zambia. He trained as a mathematics teacher and has been running coding courses for grade school pupils. For the last four years, Dominic Nshimba has collaborated with Siisi Nelson as an artist collective, to produce theatre that explores social issues and community narratives. Since 2018 Dominic and Siisi have worked with LoCA as coordinators. Www.Domincnshimba.Com

Stephane Kabila Kyowa

Dominic Nshimba is a full-stack developer based in Livingstone, Zambia. He trained as a mathematics teacher and has been running coding courses for grade school pupils. For the last four years, Dominic Nshimba has collaborated with Siisi Nelson as an artist collective, to produce theatre that explores social issues and community narratives. Since 2018 Dominic and Siisi have worked with LoCA as coordinators. Www.Domincnshimba.Com

As an artist collective and independent artist-run space, LoCA has held activities since 2009. In Zambia, where there are no government grants for independent initiatives and financial supports are challenging to attain, generous support and funding initiatives generated from individual exhibitions by the team members have kept LoCA active over the years. We want to thank the following individuals and organisations for their contributions through advice, donations, and support, making it possible for us to provide a solid platform for artistic experimentations to date. Milumbe Haimbe co-founder, Gabi Ngcobo co-founder, Victor Mutelekesha co-founder, Pablo Lafuente, Pedro Lasch, N’Gone Fall, the late Okwui Enwezor, Micheal O’Donnel, Andreas Siqueland, Romeo Gongora, Thomas Benedict Holt, Marie Payen, Don Laurence, the late Bisi Silver, David Chirwa, Pablo Lafuente, Rachael Dagnall, Raphael Chikukwa, OCA, Tenthaus, Kunstforeingen, Wayiwayi Art Studio and Gallery, Zenzele Chulu, Modzi Arts, University of Oslo, National Museum Library Oslo, Henie Onstad, Norli Book Stores, National Art Gallery Livingstone, ZNVAC