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Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses work of arts from artists who live or have lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in especially looking at how the future is imagined, visualized or articulated in the artists' projects and how alternative futures are presented for people living under the label refugee.

Paper long abstract:

Kakuma Refugee Camp is a refugee camp in Northwestern Kenya near the border to South Sudan. Established in 1992 to give shelter to the "Lost Boys of Sudan", in its 28 years of existence it has become a semi or permanent home for nearly 200.000 people.

Living in a forced and marginalized home, live is characterized by restrictions, regulations and depression. However, Kakuma Refugee Camp can also be a place of dreams, hope, opportunities and chances for the future. This becomes most visible through the many artists and artistic projects from divers arts like film, music, photography or painting taking place in the camp. With the use of new media like Internet and Social media, these artistic projects become more visible and can reach larger publics around the world.

In this paper, I want to take a closer look at some artistic projects in Kakuma Refugee Camp and analyse how the future is imagined, visualized and articulated in artists' work. I want to ask, how artists talk about the future in relation to past and present, how they present possible alternative futures for people living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in their home countries, in Kenya or abroad and how through their work they take part in a form of active "future-making" (Appadurai).