Zim in Venice 2011

This is an amazing and very exciting opportunity to showcase Zimbabwe’s diverse and little-known about architecture. I look forward to hearing more!

The year is getting off to a good start for African creativity, with The Art Gallery of Peterborough, in Ontario, playing host to an exhibition of Contemporary African Photography from 13 January to 4 March. Curated by Kenneth Montague and organized by Wedge Projects and Gallery 44 (Toronto), features work by contemporary African-born photographer. The work comes from Mohamed Bourouissa, Mohamed Camara, Calvin Dondo, Samuel Fosso, Hassan Hajjaj, Bouchra Khalili, Antony Kimani, Lebohang Mashiloane, Aïda Muluneh, Dawit L. Petros, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Guy Tillim, Andrew Tshabangu and Nontsikelelo Veleko.

As 2012 gets going, Maxwell Sibanda looks back to sum up a successful year in the arts for Zimbabwe. Let’s hope that 2012 will see Zimbabwe’s creativity continue to shine.

On Thursday 13 October Raphael Chikukwa was joined by Bisi Silva, the founder and artistic director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria, for a discussion about the exhibition of African art in Africa. They were interviewed by Bola Mosuro for BBC Radio’s Africa Today podcast.

This link takes you to a snippet of the conversation.

Clifford Zulu gives a very personal account of his time in Venice. Having played an enormous role in running the pavilion for the duration of the Biennale, ensuring that it has remained open and welcoming to visitors, he offers a candid insight into his experience not only within the Zimbabwe pavilion but also to life within this “water city”.

Click on the link above to read Clifford’s blog.

Timothy Akuda talks about the current status and future of stone sculpture in Zimbabwe, an interesting debate as this year’s pavilion shows that contemporary Zimbabwean art has more to offer than just this traditional art form.

Click on the link above to read Nicola’s blog entry.

She describes the Iniva symposium, held on Monday 10th October, as ‘deliciously candid’.. do make sure to read her take on the day!

As previously posted, an Art Talk by Zimbabwean artist Richard Mudariki will be hosted by the African Arts Institute at 6 Spin Street, Cape Town, on 18 October from 6.30pm.

The talk is titled Creators, Context and Contents and will focus on Zimbabwe’s contemporary art offering. This is the third in a series of Art Talks on topics relating to contemporary visual arts from the continent of Africa, presented as part of AFAI’s Learn Africa Love Africa events programme.

Mudariki will give an overview of the most important voices and recent developments in contemporary art and visual culture in Zimbabwe.

The hour-long Art Talk will start at 6.30pm in the lecture room of the Cape Town Centre for Democracy at 6 Spin Street, next to the offices of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa. The talk will be preceded by a Spier Creative Block wine tasting from 6pm.

Tickets are R30 and booking is essential due to the venue’s limited capacity. To book, e-mail info@afai.org.za or phone 021 465 9027.

Media enquiries: Mari Stimie, AFAI Projects Manager, mari@afai.org.za or 021 465 9027
 

Web site: http://www.africanartsinstitute.org.za

To view the original post in ZimboJam, follow the link above.

The Zimbabwe Pavilion at the ongoing 54th Venice Biennale dub named Seeing Ourselves has managed to raise a whopping US$300 000 in cash and kind so far from exhibitions on display featuring four Zimbabwean artists; Tapfuma Gutsa, Misheck Masamvu, Berry Bickle and Calvin Dondo.

In an interview with the Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe carried out by  Rutendo Mutadzapasi, the former said that the Zimbabwean Pavilion had witnessed an influx of visitors in the first two months. “The response has been beyond our wildest expectations as for the first 2 months the pavilion received over 500 visitors a day and from August we continue to receive between 150 and 200 visitors a day.”

Sibanda, who doubles as Commissioner at of this international exhibition, said that the position of the Zimbabwe Pavilion at this grand event is likely to boost the image of and interest in the country when she said,” the position of the Zimbabwe pavilion was very much to our advantage as it is located immediately at the point of disembarkation of visitors to the island.”

“Those that did not know about Zimbabwe got a glimpse of Zimbabwean contemporary art and it is our hope that this will increase interest by international curators,” she said.

The Director underscored the relevance of the event and how it helped in presenting the country’s image which has been negatively portrayed in other countries,” I think the benefits to the country are wide ranging, mainly based on the positive image that our presence generated.”

“By presenting art in Venice it shows we are a stable and serious society, brimming with diversity and sophistication. This has flown in the face of the negative media we have experienced over the years considering the comments we have received from visitors. They are positive and exuded a heartfelt response to the quality of work at the pavilion,” said the Director.

The presence of Zimbabwe and South Africa which were the only two African countries present at this event was hailed by Mrs. Sibanda who described the two countries’ participation as, “the dramatic and complex relevance of Africa through an art that reflects soul.”

The Director pointed out that Zimbabwe was likely to participate in the next Venice Biennale scheduled for 2013, saying that if their neighbouring country South Africa could secure its presence for the next five years nothing would stop her country in partaking in this event,” we would not like to believe that Zimbabwe could only make a one-off appearance at Venice when we understand that South Africa has secured presence for the next 5 editions. We would like to return to the Venice Biennale in 2013 and we are committed to raising funds that will allow us to do so along with the involvement of more agents that have similar interests and could enhance our goal,” she said.

The event received the blessings of the Ambassador to Italy, Ms Mary Mubi, who travelled from Rome to Venice to officially open the pavilion. Not only did she officiate the opening of the gazebo but the diplomat translated some text from English to Italian.

“The Ambassador was very impressed with the show and the excitement it generated. She traveled all the way from Rome to be with us. I’m sure she was surprised by the level of engagement. She offered to translate some literature at the pavilion from English to Italian in order to increase the kind of literature that she will be able to use effectively,” said Mrs. Sibanda.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner lamented the lack of support for artists at this event which triggered some challenges for artists who ended up coming in with their own resources,” I would say our collective capacity to offer more support and appreciation to the participating artists was not fully explored and we were only able to provide small commissioning funds. This was still not able to offset their personal sacrifices as well as the resources they each individually had to raise in order to create the work and have it confined in Venice with no immediate prospects of being able to sell the work.

Various sponsors such as the British Council in Zimbabwe, the European Union, Alliance Française, Museum of Monaco, the Principality of Monaco and the Zimbabwean Government came in with support to make Zimbabwe’s participation possible. “The entire project succeeded because of this. We are very appreciative of these partners and do hope they are fully satisfied with the outcome,” said Sibanda.

This exhibition includes newly commissioned works made specifically for the 54th Venice Biennale 2011 by  Gutsa, Masamvu, Bickle and Dondo.

The Biennale came into life on June 4 and will end on November 27, 2011.

- Zimbo Jam (Pictures: National Gallery of Zimbabwe)

An interesting article about the South African pavilion in The Art Newspaper. I find this such a shame, the pavilion had some definite highlights, namely Mary Sibande’s striking installations; this controversy casts a dark cloud over the achievement of returning to Venice and the work of these artists. Corruption is such an ugly word, why has it been allowed to enter South Africa’s art world?

Click on the link above to read the full article.