The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo
THE National Gallery of Zimbabwe has been at the forefront of promoting local visual artistes for decades.
Over the years, they have linked up with institutions from other countries for various programmes and exhibitions, creating platforms for local visual artistes to showcase their work on the international stage.
On February 4, the gallery will launch “Kabbo ka Muwala”, a collaborative exhibition, which will be displayed in two other galleries: Makerere Art Gallery in Kampala, Uganda and Städtische Galerie in Bremen, Germany.
Exhibitions are often first done in Europe before travelling to Africa. However, “Kabbo ka Muwala” will begin at two traditional exhibition venues in Zimbabwe and Uganda before docking at the port city of Bremen.
The exhibition runs at the National Gallery from February 4 to April 4, and in Uganda from April 14 to June 12 before moving to Germany from September 24 to December 11.
Each venue will feature a core of traveling works complemented by displays and exhibits that make reference to the respective region.
The exhibition and accompanying programme also aim at emerging artistes, activists and grassroots organisations, universities and schools.
The travelling exhibition artistically explores perspectives on the multitude of migration processes in and from southern and eastern Africa primarily through the eyes of artistes from these regions.
A wide range of media, including photo works, videos, mixed media and installations will propose alternative reflections to clichéd representations of a mass exodus to the global north.
The title of the exhibition is an idiom in Luganda, a widely spoken language in central Uganda. The expression refers to a tradition known throughout East Africa in which a bride transports presents in a basket to her new family and her parents in turn.
Metaphorically the basket represents expectations and hopes, but also disappointments and setbacks, which come with marriage and also with processes of migration.
The accompanying illustrated catalogue includes essays by the curatorial and the scholarly team, as well as by Gerald Machona, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Rosemary Jaji and Yordanos Seifu Estifanos, linking scholarship in cultural studies and social sciences with artistes’ perspectives.
Zimbabwean artistes taking part in this exhibition include Berry Bickle, Kudzanai Chiurai, Gerald Machona and The Border Farm Project, which is a collaboration between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The exhibition is based on the collaboration between Carl von University Oldenburg, National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, Makerere University in Kampala and Städtische Galerie Bremen, and is funded by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
The National Gallery is currently showcasing the “Green Shoots” exhibition, which was launched last week and will be running until the end of the month.
This exhibition showcases artworks from the graduating class of the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design.
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is a gallery dedicated to the presentation and conservation of the country’s contemporary art and visual heritage.
The gallery has been in existence since 1957, witnessing the shift from colonialism to independence and has been central to the rise of Zimbabwean artistes in the world arts markets.
