eBusiness Weekly
Own Correspondent
An exertion on curatorship was held for tertiary education students wherein the chief curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Raphael Chikukwa, offered insights on curatorial best practice to the group of students. Various issues ranging from the history of artistic practice in Zimbabwe, the region and the globe wherein conversations on curatorship were exhaustively discussed.
On the precedence that most of the participants were neophytes to curatorship, Mr Chikukwa outlined the curator as “a carer” from the Latin cūrā and in a much more descriptive sense “a visual DJ or storyteller using collected artwork as the medium for a message”.
The process of curatorship is seated in building an exhibition from the research end to the budget.
“A curator must conduct exhaustive research via reading and collecting material that can support the exhibition.”
Mr Chikukwa continued by saying “Having knowledge of artists and conducting studio visits ensures that a finger is kept on the pulse in the run up to an exhibition. A ritualistic approach between budget, studio visits and research determines the show’s progression from concept to realisation.”
Mr Chikukwa started off by detailing the history of art from Zimbabwe by emphasising the development of centres such as Tengenenge, Nyarutsetso, Cyrene and Serima. He emphasised on the direction in which the mentors present at those establishments had in developing the art industry in Zimbabwe.
The advent of the Stone Sculpture Movement was peppered on, with Mr Chikukwa pointing out the marketing dynamics that had been tied to the practice of the day; in a world where art from Africa was widely held as agnate primitivism, fetishised in form and narrative — broke away from Western focused notions and pushed through individuality into the work.
The force of developing identity as from the African context was pointed out as Mr Chikukwa indicated the role of the West in the development of art in Zimbabwe and the continent as being watched over by what he termed “Gatekeepers” in the mould of Western curators. Herein there was an obloquy of the beaux in favour of the rudimental; therein these gatekeepers reimbursed through the regulation and control of what the practice was, with regards to curatorship, and as a paraphrase to super curator, Okwui Enwezor, a Short Century loomed in relation to what African art, or rather what art from Africa was meant to be.
Mr Chikukwa went on to outline the event horizon in curatorship on the African continent being the monumental Magicians of the Earth, (curated by Jean Hubert-Martin) held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, featuring works from a 50 percentile quota from the Third World (among them Henry Munyaradzi), largely dwelling on the fact that the centre of continental discourse was unashamedly Western.
Mr Chikukwa stressed that the unobserved shift in the dialogue was the nominal class of curators, the aforementioned Enwezor; Salah Hassan, Simon Njami, Bisi Silva, et cetera became the core of a highly important individuals who were to assume the “gatekeeping” that had long been misinterpreted.
What came in with the curatorial engagement on the continent were formative shifts that put Africa on a different trajectory; Okwui Enwezor’s The Short Century and Simon Njami’s Africa remix were indubitably avant-garde in the disruption of long standing control mechanisms and with that, served in remedial capacities to bring the curatorship engagement to the continent. A creative class arose with unlimited vigour; according to Mr Chikukwa, mostly operating as independent practitioners, with a few, such as himself, taking office in public institutions. Training thus became critical as DakArt, Asiko, KlaArt, At Work and ICAC became exchange points warranted to stimulate curatorial practice.
Curatorial intensive programmes were crafted by the curators on the continent, geographically at each cardinal point to offer a hypodermic injection into the direction of art in society. As this exertion was modelled, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe has a planned intensive slated for later on this year.
The main focus embedding itself in developing curators to deal with the ever increasing activity in the art world locally and regionally. The intent being the creation of networks of young practitioners as the future beckons, tying in with the theme set by the Gallery for the International Conference on African Cultures, that is, Mapping the Future.
The new generation of curators includes the likes of Gabi Ngcobo for Centre for Historical Reenactments; Messkerem Assegued of Zoma Contemporary Museum, Addis Ababa, Jimmy Ogonga of Nairobi Art Trust, Abdellah Karoum of L’ Apartment 22 in Rabat, Marilyn Douala Bell of Doual’Art, Christine Eyene and CCA Lagos’ Bisi Silva founded institutions which are firmly rooted in curatorial practice. The emerging events on the world art calendar such as KLA ART and Kampala Art Biennale in Uganda have become a hotbed of new perspectives in Africa’s curatorial practice.
What Mr Chikukwa pointed out was the observational prowess that is expected of curators; the ability to develop audiences and reflect upon tastes, as varied as they can be.
He pointed out that artists and artworks can develop socially relevant themes that can, aesthetically and monetarily reflect a narrative which can be engineered to foster development. On the spectrum that deals with curatorship; there was need, he said, to have a balance on either end of this spectrum, that is, conceptual and consumptive conditions.
In light of the latter, Mr Chikukwa cited his exhibition “Lost and Found: Resilience, Uncertainty, Expectations, Excitement and Hope”; which initially showed at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, and now currently running at the Bulawayo branch of the organisation. The consumptive end, that is, the audience, has been largely local with international visitors have found the archival nature of the exhibition’s narrative on Operation Restore Legacy being inspirational, engaging and immersive.
The concept itself, remaining the same, has been far reaching in the coverage of a highly localized subject, however, with the urge to expand the consumptive range of the show, Mr Chikukwa has stated that the exhibition has been repackaged and is to show at the FNB Johannesburg Art Fair this September — a shift that regenerates the curatorial concept to a wider audience. This creates the balance mentioned where concept and consumption engage different insights on largely uniform content.
In his conclusion at this exertion; Mr Chikukwa touched base with the students with regards the budgetary components of curatorship, which he expanded as being the most crucial aspect of Curatorial practice.
He pointed to partnership, either, as in the case of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, would come in the form of grants, from Government (and in the case of independent curators) and corporations or civic organisations. Partnerships or collaborations with other galleries or institutions were also cited as he referred to past projects such as Kabbo ka Muwala and Future African Visions in Time, wherein the Gallery worked with Makerere University and Iwalewahaus at the University of Bayreuth respectively.
Conclusively, the need for a wider operating curatorial practice is required to bolster art practice in the continuing future. Arguably, curatorship has been largely viewed as a bailiwick of museums; however, over the years, many other disciplines have become infused with curatorial practice, as the essence of asking questions and dwelling on doctoral insight is broad. Curatorial intensives will thus be vehicles to incubate rationale, interpretive and studious thinking that can be implemented in all walks of life.
