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“Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu” (2015) published by Patchy Light Media is a condensed biographical and contextual narrative catalogue of the Zimbabwe Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2015 that started on May 8 and will close on November 22 in Italy. Zimbabwe’s representatives at the ongoing international art exhibition are Chikonzero Chazunguza, Masimba Hwati and Gareth Nyandoro, who bear new complex of works, incorporating video, prints, drawings, objects, and sound for the Zimbabwe Pavilion.
Writing in the “Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu – Exploring The Social and Cultural Identities of the 21st Century”, Zimbabwe Pavilion curator Raphel Chikukwa says the exhibition comes at a time when our future is faced with many challenges.
“Zimbabwe is not immune to world challenges and its artists are contributing to the global discourse in their own way. Zimbabwe Pavilion is their contribution and voice,” says Chikukwa. Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Pavilion Doreen Sibanda says Unhu/Ubuntu relates to the ontological perception of self, family and relations, between self and other.
“I am because we are is an acknowledgement of the importance one accords to others. The immediate acknowledgement of this and the declaration that ‘if you don’t exist or I don’t acknowledge you, then I cease to exist’ is a heavy responsibility, a generous disposition and one that drives against the global contemporary values of individuality and a narcissistic ‘selfie’ culture.”
Chazunguza is a phenomenal figure on Zimbabwe’s landscape and if there is to be a national shrine for artists, he would certainly get automatic conferment given his lifetime contribution to the promotion and development of arts in the country.
One of the unmistakable aspects of Chazunguza’s personality is his humility and highly perceptive mind which is reflected in his art. Despite his broad global exposure, Chazunguza has remained rooted in Zimbabwe, deriving his inspiration from what he calls the essence of human life inspired by the histories and traditional cultures of indigenous people the world over.
“It is from our history and traditional culture that we know who we are as a people. It is here that we get to understand that life is ‘one’, that those who came before us are still here with us. In some of my work, I interrogate and explore themes to do with perversion of our lifestyle, as spearheaded by consumerism and its disregard for traditional cultures,” Chazunguza quips.
Chazunguza is a visual artist and provocateur whose multidisciplinary artworks raise searching questions about the postcolonial condition and the unstable role and nature of art in its post-colonial context.
In 2009 Chazunguza moved to Canada where he was confronted with contrasting realities of “here and there”. He later established an artist resource centre, Dzimbanhete Arts Interaction on the outskirts of Harare. He is the recipient of numerous awards and has exhibited in several solo shows in Africa, Europe and North America. His latest body of works interrogates memory, history and identity culminating in Maputura – the pace we want to be.
The other Zimbabwean participant to the international festival is Hwati, who completed his formal education in Mhondoro and in Highfield, and then went on to embark on a visual arts course at the Harare Polytechnic from 2001 to 2003 where he majored in ceramics and painting earning a first class diploma in fine art.
He teaches visual arts at Harare Polytechnic and is currently one of the three-dimensional art instructors. His work queries the “thinking” behind today’s modern thought and explores the altruistic possibilities that exist in non-material cultures.
Nyandoro was born in Bikita, Masvingo, in 1982 and trained at Masvingo Polytechnic, Harare Polytechnic and Chinhoyi University of Technology. He fascinated by street life and the human interactions.
He combines images of vendors with materials which he processes by employing idiosyncratic variations on traditional craft techniques. He weaves with paper. Nyandoro produces prints not by using an engraved copper plate, but by cutting directly into the paper, sponging ink onto it and finally removing the top layer of paper with tape so the ink is only left behind in the cuts. A technique he calls “kuchekacheka”.
Online Reporter