Franz Cerami's 'Juta Portraits' Digitally Narrates Nairobi's Coffee Supply Chain

On June 2, 2026, the Italian Embassy in Nairobi, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture and UNIDO's ACT coffee program, presented Franz Cerami's digital artwork 'Juta Portraits.' The project, supported by the Mattei Plan for African cooperation, creates a visual link between Kenya and Italy through the coffee supply chain, highlighting the people involved from cultivation to distribution. Over two months, Cerami collected about 300 video portraits in Nairobi's urban spaces and surrounding coffee-growing counties, using a camera-equipped off-road vehicle. The portraits were projected onto large screens made of bamboo and jute (each 9x6 meters) at the embassy during the Republic Day celebration. Cerami employed a technique of dynamic painting, printing video frames on fine-art paper and jute, manually retouching them, then re-digitizing to reconstruct the video sequence. One jute canvas was acquired by the National Museum of Kenya. The project also included a seminar at Kenyatta University on portraiture, public art, and videomapping. Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco emphasized the artwork's political, cultural, and human value in creating connections. The coffee supply chain supports about 5 million Kenyans.