Sculpture on makondé wood
The Makonde are a Bantu people from East Africa, living mainly in southeastern Tanzania and northern Mozambique in the Cabo Delgado region. They are a people of craftsmen renowned for their art of woodcarving. The Makonde traditionally carve everyday objects, but also busts, figurines and masks, and above all ujamaa, a kind of totem made from a single piece of wood carved with multiple interconnected figures, symbolizing unity and brotherhood (translation of the Kiswahili word). They only came into contact with the Portuguese colonizers around 1930, who showed great interest in these sculptures and commissioned numerous pieces. This initial contact with European culture inspired the Makonde in return, who integrated and reinterpreted elements of modern Western art in their work. From the 1950s onwards, Makonde art evolved, with the appearance of abstract figures, notably the spirits known as Shetani. The father of the Shetani style is the sculptor Samaki Likankoa, a key figure in modern Makonde art who enjoys international recognition. Some Makonde sculptors, most famously George Lugwani, adopt a completely abstract style. To discover the work of Makonde artists, visit Maputo's Makonde Art Cooperative.
Reinata Sadimba, icon of African sculpture
Reinata Sadimba was born in 1945 in a small village on the Mueba plateau in the north of the country. A refugee in Tanzania, she has lived and worked in Maputo since the end of the civil war in 1992. She has a studio at the capital's Natural History Museum, which is open to visitors. Of Makonde culture, Reinata works clay with her hands, as is traditional in this ethnic group of potters, a technique handed down from mother to daughter. At first, she made everyday objects: jars, plates and other kitchen utensils. Gradually, however, ceramics became more and more creative and the essence of her life. It's a highly personal mode of expression, characterized by strange, chimerical forms: four hands on one body, a body with several heads, a head with several faces, etc. These works reflect the matrilineal universe of his ancestors. These works reflect the Makonde matrilineal universe, reconfigured by painful personal experience and a fertile imagination, addressing themes of social and individual identity - particularly that of women - as well as the primordial link to the land.
Painting and graphic arts at the Nucleo de arte
The promotion of the visual arts began with the formation of the Nucleo de Arte collective in 1921, an association bringing together practitioners of all associated disciplines. The first members of the collective were whites born in Mozambique to Portuguese parents. They included Frederico Ayres, an impressionist considered the father of modern art in Mozambique, Jacob Estevão and Vasco Campira. In 1949, the Nucleo de Arte's first painting exhibition welcomed António Bronze and Lobo Fernandes, and also included a poet-draughtsman, Rui Knopfli. Later, João Ayres (son of Frederico), Bertina Lopes and Eugénio Lemos join the movement towards white Mozambican art.
The Nucleo de Arte was the place where all the painters converged in the 1950s. At the end of the decade, members of the collective became interested in the work of several Mozambican artists, including Malangatana Ngwenya, Alberto Chissano (who has a museum named after him on the Costa do Sol) and Shikani. Black Mozambican art was born. Since then, the collective has gone from strength to strength, with an international reputation. When the civil war ended in 1992, this artistic center played an important role in recasting the sense of belonging to a national identity. Its members worked to salvage weapons left over from the conflict, transforming them into art objects. Following this practice, artists such as Gonçalo Mabunda became world-famous.
Malangatana Ngwenya (1936-2011), artist and poet
He is one of Mozambique's most important artists, a painter and poet of international renown. His canvases are charged with bodies, faces and expressions of distress. The vivid colors are intriguing; often, red dominates, intense, synonymous with blood and violence. Another constant is the importance given to the gaze and the shape of the eyes, almond-shaped and simplified. The themes are always serious: Rêve du prisonnier, Abîme du péché, Jour de divorce, Travail forcé, Amour et guerre, L'Ultime Souper and Césarienne are all titles that express raw pain. Add to this a touch of cubism and surrealism, and a perfect mastery of color and form. Malangatana Ngwenya explores his own culture, draws inspiration from his dreams and nightmares, from moments in his life, looks and listens around him, and transcribes the pain of an entire society, of a country affected by more than fifteen years of civil war. A key figure in the history of contemporary art in Mozambique, he is one of the country's most interesting painters. He died in 2011, but his work can now be admired at the National Art Museum in Maputo.
Roberto Chichorro, straddling two cultures
Chichorro was born in Maputo in 1941. Chichorro, the "dark-skinned European", is a poet torn between two distant lands, Mozambique on one side and Portugal on the other. His work is radically different from that of Malangatana. He captures fragments of life that particularly touch him, and paints a world of softness and tranquility. His painting is colorful, seductive and accessible. Black or mixed-race skin, white faces, deep blue eyes, music and the sea form a constant weave in his work. An unconditional admirer of Chagall, he has chosen to paint freedom, emotions and feelings linked to the daily enjoyment of life. His childhood memories are part of the universe he puts down on canvas, and the reality he paints is always imbued with magic.
The "murais", historical frescoes
It's a revolutionary tradition from Latin America, particularly Chile, in which the political message is central and aesthetics take a back seat. After independence, a wave of euphoria led hundreds of people to spontaneously express themselves on city walls with slogans such as "down with racism", "long live Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front)" or "down with the exploitation of man by man". The images depict heroes of the national struggle, women taking part in social activity, workers... Today, a few of these murals survive.
This first wave of ephemeral, anarchic painting was followed by a more organized series of murals. Drawings and colors were chosen in advance, and the work was carried out by master craftsmen, often Chilean exiles who put their culture at the service of the Mozambican revolution. In 1977, a hundred volunteers got involved in cleaning up the grounds of Maputo's central hospital, and some of them painted murals to make the atmosphere more pleasant. This was followed by a series of murals on various buildings around the city. These works recount suffering and sadness through daily struggle, the victory of the revolution, the return of women to social activity and the hope of a better future. All were created by painters committed to the revolution.
At the Museum of Natural History, a fresco 20 m long and 6 m high was created by Malangatana Ngwenya. It is a mosaic of human and animal figures dealing with "the struggle between man and nature". Detail dominates in a spiral of movement. Faced with this complex work, the eye is drawn in different directions. The colors of Frelimo are highlighted, symbolizing the struggle against oppression. On the road to happiness, suffering is always present: this is what Malangatana seems to want to express.
In Maputo, the most impressive and visible mural is located on the airport road. The fresco, 95 m long and 6 m high, is located in the Place des Héros, with a star in the middle. Created collectively by engineers, architects, painters, sculptors, carpenters, ironworkers and artists from the Nucleo de Arte, this collective work is a symbol of the revolution that is part of the Mozambican landscape today. Considered a work of art, it embodies the triumph of the fight for independence.
Mozambique, the African crossroads of photography
Mozambique is one of the few African countries to have experienced real photographic development very early on, with some famous figures in the field. The arrival of photography in Mozambique dates back to 1873. In 1899, the Lazarus brothers, of Portuguese origin, settled in Maputo. They produced mainly portraits and family photos. The first journalistic photos appeared in 1920, but the press didn't really hire professionals until after the Second World War. Ricardo Achiles Rangel (1924-2009) was one of the first wave of national photographers. In the 1960s, photography was used primarily as a political tool, to report on the struggle for Mozambique's liberation. From 1964, Rangel and Kok Nam (1939-2012), the two oldest photographers, worked for the Diario de Moçambique in Beira, the country's second largest city, reporting on events linked to the fight for independence. Nam worked extensively alongside Mozambique's armed forces, exhibiting a series entitled Youth for Freedom in 1968. Hand in hand, in 1970 they participated in the creation of the weekly magazine Tempo, the first to give pride of place to photography. In 1981, the Mozambican Photography Association was created with the support of the presidency. In 1983, with the help of Italian cooperation, Rangel set up the Centre de formation photographique, which he ran for many years. The center's vocation is to train young people in the techniques of photography, and it is also a place of archives and photographic reserves on Mozambique. Unfortunately, today's training courses are limited to short, fee-paying internships, which are insufficient to provide solid training. The end of the war saw the emergence of a new generation of photographers born in the 1960s, whose most illustrious representatives are Sergio Santimano, Rui Assubuji, José Cabral and Naita Ussene. These newcomers have revived the image of Mozambican society, depicting misery, victims of war and outcasts.
