Kemet

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

CAUSE

From the first jazz to the hip-hop of today, from Aretha Franklin and Sun Ra to Kanye and Rihanna - in many music you can see that the makers were inspired by ancient Egypt and Nubia, located further south. The KEMET exhibition focuses on the music of artists with African roots. It is a journey through music history, in search of the appeal of ancient Egypt. What does ancient Egypt mean to these musicians? In the exhibition with a program of events full of music and ancient Egyptian culture, you can dive into the world of artists and history.

GOAL

The campaign must be unconventional, colourful, stimulating, multimedia and characterized by creativity and interactivity. In addition, the campaign must arouse interest in the exhibition, announce the exhibition and ultimately mobilize people to come and visit the exhibition.

IDEA

To announce the 'KEMET-Egypt in Hip Hop, Jazz, Soul & Funk' exhibition and immediately load the name with a new target group to be reached, the National Museum of Antiquities is launching the 'Parallel Afrofuturism Universum' campaign. The campaign takes you to (a representation of) an afrofuturistic KEMET; a parallel world full of wonder, which surrounds the target group with the symbolism, image and audio that can be experienced in the exhibition. This also happens in the literal sense in an interactive experience.

KEMET

The campaign consists of a still campaign image, animated poster and an Instagram filter, both set within the parallel Kemet world, which lies over our own world. The universe is a 'twist on reality' which should represent an ideal vision of the future in which all visual language and audio from different places come together in this world, as relics of a hidden world. The target group can view, enter and share this world. In the world you see cracks of our own real world coming back. A metaphor for the ever-present desire for an Afrofuturistic world, within this postcolonial society. Campaign image In the campaign image we see a model posing in this world and surrounded by KEMET. The model wears a royal outfit and accompanying make-up, which of course prevents cultural appropriation. Animated poster To be able to reach the target group on social media, an animated version of the campaign image is also made. This contains the photo of the model with a dynamic version of the Kemet world that moves. This video is suitable for Stories. If desired, an out-of-home version or 4:5 version can also be made for timeline. Instagram filter In the Instagram filter, the target group can enter the KEMET universe itself and explore the objects and scenes. You can “point” your phone at a situation and you will see the reference that goes with it. In an ideal scenario you also hear a music fragment and you see, for example, a loop (gif) from a video clip. This can appear in a futuristic way, perhaps as a kind of hologram. Subsequently, the target group can tell others about their experience by taking a selfie and sharing it via Stories. In doing so, they become - in a respectful way - part of the universe in a suitable outfit.

STRATEGY

Layered concept The Kemet exhibition consists of many layers. Looking at the list of objects, it becomes clear that the exhibition includes ancient Egyptian objects (100), album covers and props (100), music tracks (50), music videos (25), and photography of artists and their performances (40) and finally will contain modern objects (20). The list of objects gives the exhibition a deep layering that can be heard and seen everywhere, but can certainly also be felt. The same layering is part of the strategy of the 'Parallel Afrofuturism Universe concept'. The target group can therefore relive this stratification several times and be amazed each time by a different aspect of both the exhibition and the associated parallel afrofuturism world. In this way, this world becomes an interactive way of creating anticipation and curiosity among the target group in order to encourage them to visit the museum. In this way, the concept tries to meet the demand for an “ unconventional, colourful, stimulating campaign that is characterized by creativity and interactivity.”

Control back over cultural narrative

In the real world, there is often discrimination in Dutch society or in the way people are portrayed. Because of the mix of Afrofuturism, symbolism, a high degree of kingship, wealth in objects and the associated philosophies, the concept tries to respond to the dignity of people who feel connected to people from the African diaspora or here themselves belong to, or the new target group to be reached. In this KEMET world, they regain control over their own cultural narrative. Target group main character campaign The target group can both enter the Parallel Afrofuturism Universe and also take a 'selfie' in this world. In this way, the concept tries to make the target group the main character in the campaign and to provide a way to organically enter the perception of the new target group to be reached. When the target group places a 'share' via the Instagram filter, it responds to the 'social currency' phenomenon. The relevance for the target group lies in this 'social currency' (loosely translated as 'social currency') that they can obtain through the interactive Instagram brand experience and associated share.

Photography: Bete van Meeuwen

Make-up: Alejandro Malcolm

Model: Sadryone Maduro

Kroon: Rebelheart Designs