A call to dialogue

Festival of the Arts will this year present an exhibition titled “Beyond Borders: Re-questioning Development and Challenges in Contemporary Art Practice in East and Southern Africa”.
The exhibition, curated by Raphael Chikukwa, seeks to examine African borders in post-colonial Africa which have remained questionable with many African leaders talking about African Renaissance, Ubuntu, African Unity and African Union.
The African identity has remained questionable as well as the Diaspora issue, which is still a bone of contention too.
Recent events in South Africa, Kenya and other parts of the region cannot go without artists questioning the dream by the first African nationalists like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, to mention but a few.
Migration between countries in Africa did not start today but it has been a phenomenon since creation and the need to celebrate our differences is long overdue and artists serve as a medium to create a platform for dialogue.
Zimbabwe places itself as a centre for dialogue through this exhibition.
International and regional artists will exhibit various works that include paintings, mixed media and photography and these will occupy the entire gallery space until May 30.
Artists like as Lawrence Chikwa, Uhuru Kgope, Miriam Kiyambi, Sabine Kutt, Gideon Gomo and Nancy Mteki, from as far as Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Uganda, Mozambique, Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom together with Zimbabwe will through their works examine the subject of the exhibition.
Beyond Borders also questions and compares the ways in which people from different borders react to life situations and through their artistic statements create visuals portraying such events.
Moreover, the purpose of bringing together artists from all corners of the globe provides a platform for exchanging cultural, socio-economic and religious backgrounds, through art.
It will also explore how people react to certain events in Africa and how these determine our development as a continent.
We seek to safeguard our sovereignty from exploitation by the West as a continent.
Chikukwa hopes that this exhibition will inspire more artists to look beyond and take this opportunity to network with their visiting counterparts.
Hifa has always been a platform for exchange and this partnership will strengthen the call for dialogue and exchange.
The exhibition will officially open tomorrow at Hifa and Harare Conversations will run during the festival week that opens today and closes on May 1, which will see curators and artists in a dialogue to interrogate our current discourse.