Story by Bruce Chahwanda, Political Editor
ZIMBABWE seeks to establish art galleries across the country under the 100 day cycle projects, as a way of promoting the sector for national benefit.
Beautiful pieces of art in the installation, sculpture, video art and painting were on display at the Arsenale Arena being showcased by Taylor Nkomo and Kudzanai Chiurai as part of the 60th Venice International Art Exhibition.
The visit to this platform got Vice President Kembo Mohadi thinking the need to establish art galleries across the country under the leaving no one and no place behind mantra.
“I think we can do something of this sort for our own. It would be prudent for us or for the ministry to actually come up with their own galleries. We have got different people that are exhibiting here. We go and do the same, back home. Promote our artists, see to it that they have got their own galleries. After having done so, and then we try also to get a gallery that depicts the paintings of our region, which is the SADC and then the African one.
“Once we have done so, then we will become actually gurus in the art sector in Africa, SADC and also back home. So it is very good for us, as someone who actually supervises or superintends over the ministry, which is the Ministry of Sport and Arts, that I now have got ideas. I now know how to guide them on what to do” he said.
Vice President Mohadi said there is need to create a working system for artists to maximise on the numbers, while giving young people a platform to learn.
“We will be working together, we will be giving each other notes here and there, so that we come up with something that is Zimbabwean. It doesn’t actually pay us much or doesn’t augur very well to come and admire our artists’ work here in foreign lands, when we are not doing it at home.
“So we need to go out, do what we think we can do, create a system or a system whereby that is going to attract our artists to come and subscribe, that is to submit their paintings for display, and also conscientise the generality of the public back home to appreciate the art. It is not everybody that understands art, but they need to appreciate it and read it. As I am talking to you here, I am looking at a piece there, which actually depicts something, but what I am seeing might not be what other people are seeing or what the artist is seeing. So it is a perception,” he added.
Deputy Minister of Sport, Recreation, Art and Culture, Honourable Emily Jesaya said they are going to include the project on the 100 day cycle to get it in motion.
“The Ministry of Sports Recreation, Arts and Culture is going to incorporate the exhibition of our local artists in Zimbabwe in its 100 Day cycle project. We’re going to create platforms where we’re going to be showcasing the works of our artists who are already established as well as upcoming artists so that they have artists that they look up to We help them to develop their skills and talent and as well as to promote the works that they are doing in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Zimbabwean artists at this year’s mega event have proved beyond doubt that they can match international standards, hence the push from government to domesticate some of the initiatives adopted at the Venice Beinnale International Art Exhibition.
