Osart Gallery is pleased to present a new duo exhibition by Franklyn Dzingai (Kwekwe, 1988) and Wilfred Timire (Harare, 1989), titled PATONAZ (In the City), that marks the return of the Zimbabwe-born artists in the spaces of the Milan based gallery. After the success of the group show SHANDUKO (2022), the two artists present new series of works which gravitate around the theme of city life in Harare, where they both live and work, and its inhabitants. The gallery premises thus turn into a symbolic extension of the capital streets and households, with their rich stimulus and contradictions, dividing between contrasting feelings and attitudes that tell us about daily activities, hopes, challenges, dreams of redemption of a nation that exists and coexists in perfect balance between the respect for the tradition and establishment of the future.

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The population of Zimbabwe is among the “youngest” in the world (60% is under 25 years old), while the economy is one of the weakest: rampant inflation, spreading unemployment, and scarcity of facilities, they all contribute to make it one of the hardest places on Earth. On the other hand, Zimbabwe is now home to one of the most prolific artistic ecosystems in Southern Africa, with its representatives acting as ambassadors and keepers of elements of cultural tradition that mix new languages, as is the case of material recycling, one of the pillars of the country's everyday life. Recycling is at the base of the country's microeconomy, as it's reflected in the junkyards filling the city streets, or in households, where numerous families strive every day to compensate for the lack of essential goods using the most creative ways.

 

Likewise, Dzingai and Timire interpret their production, the former through printing techniques on canvas and collages, the latter creating authentic tapestries out of plastic scraps, sewn together with needle and thread. Both artists permeate their works with an extreme neorealism, that ideally bridges tradition (Dzingai's family portraits are traced back to his own familial story with pictures that boast a '70s flavour) and everyday life in contemporary Zimbabwe (as visible in Timire's subjects, with their fashionable attires and laid-back attitude), witnessing and narrating the reality in which they are immersed in.

 

The city becomes therefore the setting where real-life stories are staged, filled with characters and feelings of pride and resilience of a country that still keeps the desire to tell and renovate itself, despite the difficulties.