Alliance Française to host 'Hierophany: Hauntings & Homecoming' transmedia exhibition

The opening reception is set to take place on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at 6:30 PM at the Alliance Française premises on Utalii Lane. The exhibition will run for a limited engagement until May 30, 2026. 

'Hierophany: Hauntings & Homecoming' is a multidisciplinary showcase built from a decade of photographs, films, words, and deeply personal encounters. Minishi, an award-winning art director known for her work on the landmark Kenyan film Nairobi Half Life and Netflix's Sense8, describes the collection as a necessary evolution of her craft.

Through this exhibition, the artist reveals her inherited lineage narratives. 

Hierophany; Hauntings & Homecoming is rooted from, "The 13th PATH", a transmedia liberatory body of work initiated in 2015 by a potent dream that returned Khaliyesa back to her birth home and thereafter fueled inner and outer alchemical transformation.

It will be an immersive transmedia experience weaving together photography, film and performance into a metamorphosis through memory, rupture, synthesis, and evolution.

By weaving together elements of photography, film, live dance, and choral music, Minishi invites the audience on a transformative journey through memory, hauntings, and reminiscences.

The opening night promises a rich sensory experience that bridges the visual and performing arts. 

The premiere performance will feature elements by Katerina Gimons, which will be brought to life by Almasi, a renowned female chorale ensemble.

Adding to the cultural depth of the evening, the musical performance will be joined by artist Muhonja and traditional Isikuti dancers, blending contemporary choral arrangements with powerful local heritage.

The exhibition will be activated on May the 26th from 6:30 pm by short film screenings of Inheritance, Seven Breaths:Prologue and a special live performance.

On Saturday, 23rd May from 2pm, there will be: "Synthesis": A hybrid artist talk, exhibition walk through and mini workshop rooted on navigating creative cyclical transformation and career development. 

The exhibition is supported by FUJIFILM, for whom Minishi serves as an East and Central Africa Ambassador. The event offers a rare glimpse into the future of African transmedia storytelling and a profound exploration of identity and cultural reclamation.

Khaliyesa Barbara Minishi begun her career in 2003 in Fashion, Editorial and Commercial photography. Excellent in both location and studio, she expanded her practice into the realms of film production design and directing.

In 2016, she initiated a radical personal and professional change that evolved into a post- documentary, fine art multimedia project, The 13th Path, an ecological shapeshifting of (un)/(re)learning & re-weaving the invisible inherited narratives of her lineage and her dissonance with belonging.

In 2022 she wrote and directed her first immersive 360 immersive short film and was also the Middle East and Africa regional winner of the inaugural Fujifilm GFX Global Challenge for "Utawala", a portrait project on women creating legacies. Her fiction directorial short film debut, "Inheritance", about a young woman reclaiming her voice had its Kenyan premiere in 2024 and won Best Foreign Film at the Lois Weber Film Festival in March 2025.

She is currently the first East, West and Central Fujifilm X-Photographer, a partnership that amplifies what she has built from two decades of consistent value and vision practice, across process and engagement that she share through collaborative workshops where she guides creatives to embody a long time evolutionary approach to transform their vision and craft.