“Art, memory, and technology intertwine in the new work by Jakub Barua, combining film, virtual reality, and reflections on identity.“
The Virtual Film Memorial. Hybrid BIO_GEO-GRAPHIES of Jacob Barua project creates an immersive, interactive artistic experience that brings together memory, identity, and intercultural dialogue between Poland and Africa. The virtual environment, inspired by Barua’s poetic and visual imagination, becomes a space of emotional and intellectual engagement, connecting generations and continents.
“Jacob Barua’s BIO_GEO_GRAPHIES is an artistic record of movement — between continents, languages, memories, and identities. A selective virtual archive of Barua’s artworks and poetic map of belonging, intertwining Poland and Africa, art and technology, past and future.”
— Aleksandra Łukaszewicz, curator
Artist: Jakub Barua
Curator: Prof. Aleksandra Łukaszewicz
VR producer: Jacek Nagłowski
In collaboration with: Prof. Karina Banaszkiewicz-Sadowska
The Virtual Film Memorial will be presented in situ at the Amphitheatre at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi and via a dedicated link here starting from the 10th of December 2025 at 15:00 EAT.
The Virtual Film Memorial is part of the wider Programme consisting of the following events:
4 December 2025 – Film Retrospective, Kenyatta University
Films featured: Shades of Poland (1999), My Daddy Was a Cavalryman (2006), Forgotten Places (1993), The Greeting (1990), The Rider (1990)
10 December 2025 – Exhibition Opening, National Museums of Kenya
Presentation in VR (MetaQuest headsets) and spherical projection, reaching students, young filmmakers, and the general public.
Accompanying Publication – Biography as a Space for Dialogue between Polishness and African Cultures. Jacob Barua – Man of the Third Culture
Edited by Karina Banaszkiewicz-Sadowska
Contributors: Karina Banaszkiewicz-Sadowska, Aleksandra Łukaszewicz, Rainer Leimeroth, John Geofrey Mugubi, Rachel Diang’a
Publication planned for late 2026
This project was funded by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Nairobi and within the research framework of the Polish Society for Aesthetics under the CAPHE project, financed by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (Grant No. 101086391). The views expressed belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Executive Agency.
The production of the virtual exhibition was funded under agreement No. 1/07/2025 between the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Nairobi and KreniArt Limited.
