The National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ), Bulawayo branch is set to celebrate the country independence with an exhibition titled Phindu’phenduke.
The exhibition which will run for 24 days will be a first of its kind at the arts hub.
NGZ acting regional director and curator Cliford Zulu said the exhibition will mark the reopening of the Ango-American Gallery.
“We are happy to present Phindu’phenduke, inaugural Zimbabwe Annual Independence Celebration Exhibition to run from 01 to 24 May 2015,” he said.
“This exhibition is significant to us because it marks the reopening of the Anglo American Gallery to the public after 5 years of closure due to a court case that has since been resolved.”
Zulu said they wish to revive Ubuntu/Hunhu through celebration of history.
“We are engaging the nation to remember the struggle to freedom and revive the spirit of Ubuntu/ Hunhu, by celebrating our cultural diversity and shared history, further enriching the nation’s cultural heritage and tangible visual culture,” he said.
“The exhibition is making statements concerning our social developments, environmental surroundings and cultural inheritance.
“Largely responding to the question; what does the Zimbabwe independence mean to an artist?”
Phindu’phenduke is a commonly used term in Bulawayo that describes the country’s annual independence celebrations held since 1980.
It literary translates to recurring.
“The definition of the word independence in this context, implies a tradition, inheritance, legacy, culture and customs or one’s visual perspective of Zimbabwe’s independence,” said Zulu.
“Phindu’phenduke aims to be a contemporary guide for creative modernisation and growth driving to preserve cultural archives of the country’s inventive activities in the post-independence Zimbabwe, over the passage of time.”
The exhibition features the work of resident artists and a selection from the permanent collection.
Meanwhile, as part of the fundraising for the gallery, there will be a silent auction of uncollected works at the NGZ Bulawayo.
Zulu said, “For some time now the gallery has been keeping artworks submitted to exhibitions and never collected when the exhibition concludes.
“The gallery is conducting a silent auction of the works to defray storage and handling expenses through an exhibition titled Baccosi.
The artwork is being sold at a first come first serve basis with the base price of USD 20.00 on all of the work.
The auction will end on 30 April 2015
