‘A Promise to Communicate’ Bronce Laus Awards

5 / 10 / 2020

The publication ‘A Promise to Communicate’ by Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu has been awarded a Bronce Laus Award in the book category.

Every year the ADG Laus Awards for Graphic Design and Visual Communication recognize the best projects in more than 50 sections within five categories: Graphic Design, Digital, Advertising, Audiovisual and Students. The awards promote design, its cultural and economic importance to society, and support the professional environment.

A Promise to Communicate is an artist’s book that springs from Mutu’s eponymous installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in 2018; an intervention spanning one of the walls in the museum that brought together sticks, stones, pencils and a cartographic reconfiguration of the world using refugee blankets. Throughout the twelve months it was exhibited, visitors were invited to participate in the work by leaving messages on the wall.

This book brings together a selection of the visual codes—sometimes graphic and other times textual— that were incorporated into the piece throughout its evolution and adapts them to the LiberArs format. Different aspects of the installation, such as the democratisation of communication, the convergence of anonymous stories from a community and the weaving of a dense tapestry of text stemming from the various layers of writing are translated to this publication.