Being an orphan brought out the artist in Rukundo

Rukundo Antoinne was born in Rwanda in 1992. At two years old, his parents sensed something catastrophic was about to happen in the country and fled to neighbouring Congo, where they lived for two years. A year later, his parents were killed in the war. He was just three years old. After spending one month in an orphanage in Congo he was brought back to Rwanda, his native home. From this point onwards, he kept shuffling from one place to another, looking for food and shelter. In the course of the next six years, he lived in five different orphanages. Rukundo, a solo visual artist, says moving around so much was hard for him, but the most difficult thing throughout his life was coming to terms with the loss of his parents. “I had to become a man before I could even become a boy”, he recalls with a sullen expression.