Madness and Civilization brings to light Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai’s ongoing interest in the cyclical nature of struggle, liberation and freedom, in part through a re-staging of his first solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe last year.
This solo show opens on Thursday 12 April, 2018, at 6pm at Goodman Gallery Cape Town. Candice Allison curates.
The exhibition takes its title from Michel Foucault’s seminal text, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. For Chiurai, the ideas contained within this work relate to a central concern regarding whether the colonial project of ‘cultural disarmament’ was so effective that Africa will never be able to imagine a future that has not been pre-determined by its colonial past.
Use of intertextuality
According to Allison, Chiurai articulates this question ‘through his use of intertextuality, which flattens the perceived differences between high art and popular culture, European and African art, geographic boundaries, and linear concepts of past, present and future.’
This method of working speaks to the contents of Madness and Civilization, which includes new mixed-media drawings, a series of photographs, and, in the Video Room, We Live in Silence: Chapters 1-7 (which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival), and will head to the Rencontres du Film Court de Madagascar and Dak’Art Biennale in 2018.
NOTE: There will be an experimental sound-clash performance at the opening (12 April) by El Corazon (Atiyyah Khan – Future Nostalgia) using records exploring sounds from Zimbabwean chimurenga music and South African anti-apartheid struggle songs combined with archival recordings of speeches of power, protest and revolution.
On 14 April, 2018, Chiurai will also be in conversation with writer and art critic Khanya Mashabela on 14 April at the gallery. There will be a Walkabout Saturday 14 April at 12pm.
Who: Kudzanai Chiurai
What: Madness and Civilization
Where: Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
When: 12 April – 12 May, 2018
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