Zim art on spotlight in Italy

Stephen Garan’anga Visual Art
Every art exhibition is different especially with various sets of artists working on different themes, at different periods under different pressures and even under the same organisation and venue.

The ultimate goal for diligent organisers is to establish an exceptional hologram they would become synonymous with, which is providing an endless series of high impact exhibitions. Indeed it is no easy feat to conquer considering how much of a headache it is for organisers to gather the right ingredients to see to it that the established watermark is jealously safeguarded.

Zimbabwe’s Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Italy since its inaugural participation at the 54th edition of 2011, then the 55th of 2013 and the current 56th edition seem to have attained the watermark.

The biggest challenge now is to keep it untampered with and this demands a collective effort from various stakeholders who start with the creative practitioners themselves, the coordinators to the sponsors who need to multiply to relief the constricted resource base.

Church Santa Maria della Pieta, which houses the Zimbabwe Pavilion since its inception is currently showing a remarkable multi-media exhibition under the theme ‘Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu’ ‘Exploring The Social and Cultural Identities of the 21st Century’, which was explored by artists Chikonzero Chazunguza, Masimba Hwati and Gareth Nyandoro who interrogated various contemporary issues which undermine ‘Hunhu hwedu/ Ubuntu’.

There isn’t a conclusive translation of ‘Ubuntu/Unhu’ but may be considered to relate to the lifelong natural harmonious ways of native Africans’ highly regarding of others above self, especially in relation with courteousness, generosity, friendship to highlight a few and always asks people to know thyself as well as the recognition that “I’m because we are”.

Modernisation, chiefly the adoption of foreign ways especially the colonial imposed by the Western World that undermined everything traditional African to the current voluntary abandonment of pursuing own African ways. This is colonialism’s greatest intended achievement to install into us the illusion that we can’t make it with our own ways, hence the education systems we adopted that put us in one basket to become depended on them as they dictate the pace.

All the machinery and equipment we use on the continent are foreign engineered, so are the rules and laws we govern ourselves with.

We cannot do anything without thinking within the spheres of the foreign other which have enslaved us to become even poorer and hostile to each other.

These are some of the realities that the theme intended to interrogate and who else rightfully positioned to narrate our predicament for consciousness than the cultural practitioners themselves with various creative ways of conveying messages in material forms.

A pixel is a minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of numerous from which an image is composed, meaning in their numbers if zoomed in or out the can distort or highly define an image. ‘Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu’ exhibition contribute to the international discourse on the challenges of the ever changing world that is recreating cultures. It zooms on issues of who we are as native Zimbabwean Afrikaans, our history, our historical values, who we have become and what it means to be a today Zimbabwean artist.

For the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2015 Chikonzero Chazunguza in a three part series of ‘Presence of the Past’ in colourful print form which in cooperate archival images of Zimbabwe’s heroes of the first war of liberation from colonists seem to celebrate the victorious past that strived in every way to maintain its natural self, values, and dependency on sustainable natural resources.

It illuminates on the importance of knowing thyself as a window to a future of less struggles especially with regard to dependency on the foreign other like the current scenario which has proven unsustainable. His other work on the show in a similar concept include a series of ‘Everyday People’ and then the series of ‘Katutura’ and ‘Chimanjemanje’, which have small irregular shapes like imperfect rectangles and squares of cut-outs of various imported beverages’ packaging with human heads.

Singular identities fade to become a homogeneous crowd in grid-like compositions. He says some of his work he interrogates and explores the themes to do with the perversion of our lifestyle as spearheaded by consumerism and its disregard for traditional cultures.

He said for this particular piece he had centred his thoughts on our saying as Zimbabweans, ‘Tigere Muupfu’ meaning we are wealthy but literally translate as “we are sitting in the mealie-meal”. He stressed that “I conversely do sit in the mealies. My aim here is to investigate the very essence and dominance of corn and corn meal a foreign product to our geographical region and the other consumer product, which wormed their way into our lives and are now taken as symbols of good life. I trace my way from long ago observing the drastic shifts to the present where most communities have lost grip and there are no real good living but just the kind that is merely about appearance”.

On the other hand Masimba Hwati who in the second half of year 2014 for his multi media solo exhibition at Gallery Delta Foundation for Art and the Humanities entitled ‘Quantum Logik’ decided to enforce what he termed “integrated manner thinking”. He said it was a shift from linear rationale by adopting a higher level of resourcefulness and innovation.

In such a process all ideas and possibilities are considered as resources towards solutions, even those ideas which seem irreconcilable. He said this is the most effective approach to thinking in solving today’s pan African problems.

It was the period when he embarked on exploring the various modern day challenges in our urban settings and where they could mix with the valued traditional ways to find solutions. That’s when the ‘Urban Totem series’ was conceived and works created to show for the first time. Today the ‘Urban Totem’ series hangs proudly Zimbabwean speaking for the colonised Africa South of Sahara in the main space of Santa Maria della Pietain Venice, Italy.

The ‘Urban Totem’ series is printed on denim material bearing as many of two separate direct or traits of friend and participating colleague Gareth Nyandoro, wearing sunglasses with lenses bearing embroidery logos of giant international companies with services that we may feel stranded without especially in our urban internet life. The logos vary from the Whatsapp, Google plus, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Amstel Lager,Kentucky Fried Chicken, to mention a few.

Masimba says he is an interrogator of post-colonial hangover cultures with definitions that delineate contemporary African and Zimbabwean art forms.

His work is being directed towards becoming a search and a suggestive mould and antidote for some of technological and ideological challenges that face post modernistic Africa.

Gareth Nyandoro has gone quite “contemporous” with his array of flexible materials he juggles with in his huge high impact experimental work. At the Pavilion his experiences with Harare’s hectic life and highly unorthodox business means is represented in ‘Zvikwedengu nezvinamira (touts)’, ‘Mushika-shika wevanhu’, ‘First Street Performer’, ‘Ihohoho namadzibaba Ishimairi’ and an installation with sound that recreates a scene of illegal trading practices in the capital.

Facing the nation for the first time since returning from the May 2015 opening of the 56th Venice Biennale at July’s edition of the Harare Conversations at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, both the commissioner of the Zimbabwe Pavilion Doreen Sibanda (the executive director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe) and its curator Raphael Chikuka (the National Gallery’s chief curator as well as its deputy director) gave an insight on the whole journey to this year’s International Art Exhibition. Amai Sibanda stressed that this time around it was not difficult to convince their sponsors for funding because of the high impact of the previous two editions.

She added saying “We have been so buoyed by our previous two editions that we have endeavoured to return and present a new group of Zimbabwean artists on this very important global platform.

The previous two editions of the Zimbabwe Pavilion in Venice have done much to present the country as one in which the arts are pursued with passion and intellectual rigour”.

The curator Chikukwa expressed that it is always a sleepless nights period for a curator when asked to present an art exhibition as there are numerous issues to consider right up to the audiences reception of the presented show.

But for this year’s edition of the Pavilion he conceded that it was not as tough as he worked well with the artists he had been presented with by the Zimbabwe Pavilion’s ‘Advisory Committee’.He said he had liaised regularly with the practitioners whom he visited in their respective studios during creation of the work in conformity with the theme ‘Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu’ ‘Exploring The Social and Cultural Identities of the 21st Century’ which he felt was well explored.

This was in line with numerous articles of high recommendations by international curators, gallerists, observers and general art audiences about the exceptional artists’ work. The audience of the Pavilion is said to be increasing due to the building up reputation and that the Pavilion has not moved an inch from its inaugural exhibiting space, resulting in many knowing where to find it.

The commissioner and curator spoke expansively on how these few African countries’ Pavilions were realised and the history of the curators amongst various things surrounding the Venice Biennale. Artists and other stakeholders in the audience had time to ask questions and give opinion on the route they feel the Zimbabwe Pavilion processes should pursue especially with regard to the selection of participating artists.

The two took note of the suggestions and the curator stressed that he sometimes travels around the country observing artists’ current practices and attending many local art exhibitions as well as keeping an ear on the ground on the exploits of Zimbabwean artists plying their trade beyond our geographical boarders.

He also added that the return of the Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition was a good platform for artists’ visibility for consideration.