Online Reporter
Maria Chiguvari
Zimpapers Arts and Entertainment Hub
THE ARAK Collection, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, is set to host a three-day intensive art writing workshop in Harare from September 10 to 12.
Titled “Zimbabwe on My Mind,” the workshop aims to provide emerging and mid-career art writers, cultural critics and researchers with a platform to explore the dynamic cultural ecosystem of this country.
Led by renowned art critic, curator, and educator Thembinkosi Goniwe, the workshop will delve into the concept of biographies of subjects and objects, encouraging participants to write about artists, artworks, archives, and spaces, through a narrative and imaginative lens.
“This Zimbabwe edition will expand on that approach by introducing art criticism as an embedded, reflective and context-responsive practice.
“Participants will engage with selected artworks from the ARAK Collection online, alongside local artworks, exhibitions and cultural sites.
“The aim is to explore how both contemporary and historical materials can serve as anchors for critical and poetic biography,” read a statement from the gallery. Through a mix of writing exercises, group critiques, and site visits to local artist studios and exhibitions, participants will develop a working draft of a text by the final day.
The workshop aims to explore how contemporary and historical materials can serve as anchors for critical and poetic biography.
It also aims to introduce art criticism as an embedded, reflective, and context-responsive practice and provide multiple entry points into Zimbabwe’s dynamic cultural ecosystem.
Goniwe’s method encourages analytical yet personal writing and provokes the mind on a range of issues:
How can a life or an object be read in the light of its political, social, or material conditions?
How does an artist’s journey reflect a nation’s shifting regimes?
Can a studio or an archive embody a biography of its own?
What might writing rooted in local experience reveal about broader continental and global dialogues?
derick.khumalo