Local art at Venice Biennale

The Zimbabwean Pavilion at 54th edition of the Venice Biennale, will present “Seeing Ourselves”, an exhibition by four distinguished artistes, namely, Tapfuma Gutsa, Berry Bickle, Calvin Dondo and Misheck Masamvu.
The international art exhibition will this year run under the theme ILLUMInations and will feature 82 individual artistes and 87 national participants from all over the world.
The Venice Biennale has, for over a century, been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world. It was founded in 1895 and has been in the avant-garde, promoting new artistic trends and organising international events in contemporary arts.
It has been described as a world-beater for international festivals in film, art and architecture and has also scored great points in organising events and festivals in contemporary music, theatre and also contemporary dance.
The exhibition, which was commissioned by Doreen Sibanda, the director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, seeks to explore Zimbabwe’s artistic practices that are innovative, self-reflective and critical.
But, according to information at hand, the artistes did not only limit themselves to the Zimbabwean issues, but also looked at the global issues. However, Zimbabwe’s narrative is to be able to tell its own story using this international platform.