Rwanda’s art scene is young and booming. Multiple art galleries were established in recent years, and visual artists are becoming more exposed to the region, and globe, exhibiting and experiencing residences. Article presents works of two Rwanda’s young artists Iirumva and Dusabe that are leading in shaping the dynamic art scene of Kigali.
I write and make art from a black perspective because I think it’s needed and it makes me feel like I own my stories. I feel like it’s beautiful, it’s resistant and it’s powerful.
The theme – Get Up Stand Up – is so strong and would have been explored to its depth. Owing to the fact that the host country Uganda is going through a political conundrum with a president who’s been leading for the last 35 years, suffocating a lot of freedoms, manipulating state institutions to his favor and spearheading a shameless corrupt government. It was timely and on spot to have such a theme for such a biennale where we should have seen Ugandan artists tackle the appalling political situation in their country.
The Rhodes School of Art exclusively teaches Fine Art and not commercial art practice. It’s not a problem at all, it just prompted me to ask why that is and there was the subsequent revelation of fine art being regarded as “high art” traditionally and commercial art being reduced down to a skill. There’s an obvious art historical problem that has separated the two and given higher value to one over the other and so I sought to create room for where the two could be made distinct without placing greater value on one.
Among many other youths in Zimbabwe, Pardon Mapondera has followed this trajectory of working beyond the waithood, whether caused by the unavailability of resources or a global pandemic. On the path towards his own visual style, art wakes up Pardon Mapondera’s personal god of small things, with which he can make his “silent noise” heard.