Rebecca Katusiime & Emmanuel Oloya
Love, Care and War, 2024
Rebecca Katusiime & Emmanuel Oloya, Love, Care and War, 2024, Video still, Courtesy the artists
Narratives revolving around armed conflict tend to focus on violence, suffering, cruelty and harm. Yet it is precisely under these circumstances that love and care play an essential role. The video work Love, Care and War by Ugandan artists Rebecca Katusiime & Emmanuel Oloya reflects on such practices emphasizing love, solidarity and courage in times of war and conflict.
The video shows Rebecca Katusiime reciting the eponymous poem written by herself and illustrates in an emotional vein the simultaneity of experienced suffering and shared joy. The work was created in the context of the exhibition Love and Care in Conflicts and its Wake, staged in Gulu, Northern Uganda, in 2024 under the direction of Dr Philipp Schulz, Dr Holly Porter and Dr Roxani Krystalli. It is part of the multi-year research project Taking Love and Care Seriously, which focuses on love and care practices during and after violent conflicts. At the heart of the project lies the question of the power such practices are capable of exerting, along with their influence on the theoretical and political understanding of war and peace.