We will be free
Namibian artists exhibit in SA
We will be free, a collaborative exhibition between StArt Art Gallery, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja and Classic Framers opens at the latter in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), South Africa on 22 June.Participating artists are Nicky Marais, Tony Figueira, Fillipus Sheehama, Namafu Amutse, Elisia Nghidishange, Maria Mbereshu, Jakobina Gideon, Rachel Sakeus, Ndinomholo Ndilula, Vilho Nuumbala, Petrus Amuthenu and Anne Lacheiner-Kuhn.
This exhibition is a group show of Namibian artists who were all asked to respond to a song of the same title by Tschuku Tschuku featuring Nesindano Namises from the album Trance! Namib Freedom Station.
The exhibition will be re-staged in Windhoek in November 2023.
You can listen to the song here: https://on.soundcloud.com/Yqi28
Reconciliation
The song is about reconciling the painful past while meditating on freedom and the future. It goes, “When the sun rises when the morning comes, it will be alright”. The song is a lament, an expression of what Muafangejo illustrates as “hope and optimism despite present difficulties”.
We will be free is an imagination of what it means to practise freedom from bondage, displacement and dispossession.
Between 10:00 and 13:00 on 22 June one of the curators will be present in the venue to chat about the exhibition.
StArt Art Gallery works with some of Namibia’s most exciting contemporary artists to curate critical projects that add to the growing archive of information available to researchers, collectors and art enthusiasts.
Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja is a cultural worker, educator and writer with practice-research interests in African performance, sono-somatic archives and public culture. He is based in Windhoek after completing his PhD in Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town. He is the chair of curation and research at Owela Live Arts Collective. He is also the lead singer for the award-winning Afro-Beat/Afro-Jazz/Shambo band, Tschuku Tschuku.