adminBruce Ndlovu
Zimbabwean artiste Dana Whabira, founder of the Njelele Gallery, will join other African luminaries exhibiting at the prestigious Venice Biennale in Italy.
The Art Biennale, a contemporary visual art exhibition, is so called as it is held biennially, in odd-numbered years. It is also the original biennale on which other similar events elsewhere in the world are modelled.
This year some of Africaa��s finest artists will exhibit at the biennale, with several other contemporary artistes set to join Whabira in the exhibition.
These include Moroccoa��s Younes Rahmoun, Nigeriaa��s Qudus Onikeku, Peju Alatise, Victor Ehikhamenor and Egypta��s Moataz Nasr and Hassan Khan.
Following Nigerian-curator Okwui Enwezora��s critically acclaimed show in the last edition of the biennale in 2015, which had a strong focus on the work from the African continent, this yeara��s main exhibition is titled Viva Arte Viva, and is curetted by Christine Macel.
Although she is in a field with strong contemporary African artistes, Whabira comes with a high billing herself.
a�?Harare-based architect-cum-artist Dana Whabira will be representing Zimbabwe. She takes a multidisciplinary approach to her practice, experimenting in assemblages, installation, spatial intervention, sculptural painting and photography.
a�?Dana directs her gaze to current affairs, literature, philosophy, and theatre for inspiration, and often uses language as a metaphorical device,a�? is how the official introduction of this yeara��s exhibitors described her.
The exhibition, which is in its 57th edition, opens on 13 May.
derick.khumalo