African Aesthetics, Film, and Creative Education: Public Events with Visiting Lecturer Pluto Panoussis

The Institute for Cultural Research at the University of Tartu welcomes Erasmus+ visiting faculty member Pluto Panoussis from Open Window University for the Creative Arts (Lusaka, Zambia).

During his visit to Tartu, Panoussis will lead two public English-language events exploring African aesthetics, creative education, and contemporary moving image practices. Both sessions are open to all interested participants.

The first event, African Story, Ritual, and Artefact: Reframing African Aesthetics in a Contemporary Educational Context, takes place on Friday, 15 May, from 14:15 to 16:00 at Ülikooli 16–215.

Positioned at the intersection of creative arts education and African cultural frameworks, the ASRA (African Story, Ritual, and Artefact) programme offers insight into how a contemporary African creative arts institution contributes to broader processes of decolonisation. The seminar explores how approaches rooted in local cultural contexts shape contemporary creative identities and expressive practices within Africa.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion addressing the complexities of globalisation and contemporary arts education in Africa, with particular attention to the role and relevance of African aesthetics. The session will consider how African philosophical perspectives and cultural practices can inform and enrich creative arts education both locally and internationally.

Later the same day, from 17:30 to 20:00, the Estonian Literary Museum will host the screening and discussion The Sophisticated Voice of the African Dreamer, organised by Nefa.

Exploring the notion of “dreaming through cinema”, the event presents an informal showcase of exploratory films by students from the Open Window University for the Creative Arts. The screening will be followed by a discussion on the nature of the “sophisticated voice” in moving image practice, reflecting on how emerging filmmakers articulate identity, imagination, and cultural perspective through film, and how distinctive creative voices are developed within African contexts.

Pluto Panoussis has more than 30 years of experience in the arts. His award-winning career spans fine art, design, architecture, and filmmaking. He has exhibited internationally as a fine artist, co-written and directed television series, and created the social commentary cartoon strip Skaapstad.

For the past 16 years, Panoussis has been actively involved in tertiary creative arts education as both lecturer and curriculum developer. He recently developed Creativity Thinking and Depth Creativity courses and has played a key role in establishing the first Creative Arts University in Lusaka, Zambia.

In 2009, he founded iMPAC (Intersections in Music, Performance, Art & Cinema), an initiative reflecting his ongoing commitment to fostering interdisciplinary exploration in the creative arts, particularly within the African continent.