IT was all smiles at the recently held Swiss-Zim Heritage Vernissage at the Art@84 Gallery in Mt Pleasant, Harare, on September 12 as art lovers and visitors to the exhibition showed their adoration for art and even purchased some of the paintings and converted the market into sales. The exhibition included portraits and paintings by Tonderai Mujuru, Willard Mujuru, Florah Maphosa and Dominican Convent Girls High students, which showed meticulous silent voices in the form of paint and were picturesque through their own lens of cultural memory, environmental concern and the resilience of the human spirit. Under the theme Roots and Horizons, the Swiss-Zim Heritage Vernissage transformed the mundane into the extraordinary as brushstrokes became voices, portraits became testimonies and paintings became bridges between tradition and future.
In addition to the high resonance with the theme Roots and Horizons, the curated works showcased a wide array of nuances and connected heritage with urgency, wildlife with humanity and identity with possibility. Swedish curator and a partner at the Swiss-Zim Heritage Gallery, Dennis Ruf, said he was more than excited to witness the growth and improvement of creative spaces in Zimbabwe and Africa at large. Ruf said Zimbabwe was a peaceful tourist destination brimming with hospitality, adding that he would have loved to stay beyond the five-day Swiss-Zim Heritage Vernissage, which ran from September 12 to 16.
Keith Zenda, director for the Swiss-Zim Heritage Gallery, said he was inspired to open the Keith Zenda Gallery in Lower Gweru, his home area, and Domboshava by the desire to empower rural communities where there is plentiful untapped beautiful and adorable creative talent. In addition to the Swiss-Zim Heritage Gallery, Zenda and Ruf have established several online platforms which include Artgal, which markets and sells creative works from Zimbabwe. Students from the Dominican Convent expressed gratitude for being given an opportunity to showcase their creative works, which are also part of their examination requirements.
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The body of work from the Dominican Convent School was identified by Zenda during a visit to the school when he was a guest of honour at their Art Exhibition. The Dominican Convent girls works of imagination were expressions of adoration of girl child. At the heart of Roots and Horizons pulsed a spirit of collectivism and an unspoken harmony between artists, students, curators and communities.
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