As his star rises ever higher, we ask boundary-breaking artist Serge Alain Nitegeka about letting go of expectations, embracing the process, and celebrating the duality of making.
The late cultural theorist Stuart Hall described racial identities as ‘floating signifiers’. ‘Not,’ he wrote, ‘because of what they contain in their essence, but in the shifting relationships they establish with other concepts.’ When I first went to see Serge Alain Nitegeka’s work in Grahamstown in 2011, this idea seemed to ring true, and to resonate with his work. Rather than an attempt by an artist to paint a singular, essentialised immigrant reality, Nitegeka’s art practice seems to reflect a finely tuned balance between telling his own true story and leaving just enough open space for interpretation and a personal connection.
Born in 1983 in Burundi, Nitegeka was forced to leave his home country because of political unrest. Passing through several East African nations en route, he finally settled in Johannesburg, where he has lived, worked and thrived since 2003. And while his experience has not been easy, his story should never elicit the sort of ‘Oh shame…’ response that immigrant stories are so often met with. Instead of engineering all his artistry and talent around this one, long journey to South Africa,
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