Zimbabwe Independent
Friday, 1 April 2011
By Ngoni Muzofa
FOUR artists are set to represent Zimbabwe at the 54th Venice Biennale –– a major contemporary art exhibition in Venice, Italy. The Biennale opens on June 1 and runs until the end of November.
The Venice Biennale is one of the most prestigious international forums for contemporary art, consist of a variety of pavilions scattered around the Italian city. Painting, sculpture, architecture and more are on display for the throngs of art-loving visitors who invade the city during the festival.
The Biennale draws an international audience of approximately 500 000, and showcases the latest developments in contemporary art from around the world. This year’s edition has been dubbed ILLUMInazioni –– ILLUMInations and a record 88 nations are set to participate.
The first Biennale was held in 1895 after which the event increasingly became international in the first decades of the 20th century. From 1907 on, a number of countries started installing national pavilions at the exhibition.
Zimbabwe will feature at the exhibition for the first time along with South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Only one other African country, Egypt, has maintained its presence at the Venice Biennale.
The Education, Sports and Culture ministry will inject US$200 000 to the Zimbabwean exhibition. This is in addition of the support from the British Council, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, and Monaco Development Corporation, along with the Zimbabwe Embassy in Rome.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Education, Sports and Culture minister David Coltart expressed optimism on the positive influence Zimbabwe’s participation will bring.
“I have no doubt that this exhibition will go a long way in putting Zimbabwe’s magnificent artworks on the map. We have a huge task in rebranding Zimbabwe in a more positive light and this exhibition will go a long way in that regard,†said Coltart.
“The four artists that will be representing the country have the opportunity to challenge faulty and false constructs of this nation that are past, present and future by presenting evidence of previously unacknowledged realities and narratives,†he added.
Zimbabwe’s exhibition is entitled “Seeing Ourselves –– Questioning Our Geographical Landscape and the Space We Occupy from Yesterday, Today and Tomorrowâ€. It is commissioned by National Gallery of Zimbabwe director Doreen Sibanda, and its curator Raphael Chikukwa. The artists specialise in the mediums of painting, photography, video installation and sculpture. It will feature the work of four artists: Berry Bickle, Calvin Dondo, Misheck Masamvu and Tapfuma Gutsa.
Dondo, a photographer, will theme on citizenship, love, loss and cultural heritage, and the metaphorical ties which attract and bind people together. The photographic series he will present explores the dynamics of mixed families, their high and low moments. He has been very influential in the development of photography within Zimbabwe and has exhibited widely locally and internationally.
Veteran sculptor Gutsa will tackle issues of inequality within and between societies. He aims to move away from the Shona sculptor label and look to new media for new forms of expression.
The presentation by Berry Bickle poses questions pertaining to landscape and migration. Bickle belongs to a generation of African artists who emerged in the early 1990s when theoretical discourses about post-colonialism, cross-cultural identities and globalisation began to question Western artistic monopoly.
Young emerging painter Masamvu explores issues and relationships of social hierarchy. The artist will present five large-scale paintings and a mixed-media bench –– Deliverance.