ArtReview sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2024 Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published daily in the leadup to and during the Venice Biennale, which runs from 20 April – 24 November.
Happy Robert, Naby, Haji Chilonga and Lute Mwakisopile are representing the United Republic of Tanzania; the pavilion is at Calle del Forno 3857, Venice. They answer ArtReview’s questionnaire with pavilion curator Enrico Bittoto.
ArtReview What do you think of when you think of Venice?
Enrico Bittoto Venice is a city I’ve known since I was a child. Every summer, my maternal grandparents would take me to Lido, Murano, Burano. For me, it was a very familiar destination. Only later did I begin to get to know it also from a historical and artistic perspective: classical, modern, contemporary. Venice represents mankind’s attempt to overcome the adversities of nature, to transform a habitable nucleus into a total work of art. The perfect venue for the oldest and most important contemporary art exhibition in the world.
Lutengano Mwakisopile I think of Venice as an artistic city and a touristic place, and a floating city, with its many bridge, canals, and with galleries and museum.
Haji Chilonga On my side it’s a big thing in the art industry, that’s what I know.
Naby Venice is an old home open to artists, people, dreamers.
Happy Robert I heard that Venice is so popular among tourists from all over the world, I am just thinking how beautiful the city of water is… Furthermore, the Grand Canal with the famous Rialto Bridge…
AR What can you tell us about your exhibition plans for Venice?
EB The United Republic of Tanzania is participating in the Biennale for the first time. In presenting a young state with a strong identity like Tanzania, it was essential to take a global historical-anthropological perspective that would serve as a ‘spark’ to explain the evolution of art in the country. An art that is evolving, especially in this last decade, autonomously and that is not mediated by Western perspectives.
In this sense, our project A flight in reverse mirrors traces a very concrete timeline that rigorously explains the transition from the colonisation to the decolonisation of the country, in complete adherence to the project of the curator of the Central Pavilion, Adriano Pedrosa.
LM I will show the portrait of the Tanzanian chief who was fighting with Germany when they came to colonise Tanzania.
N My exhibition project is one of my care to an evolved Creature who goes to the moon to bring sanity back to Earth.HR I want to show the community my ability to do painting and also to meet different people, especially artists from other countries, to learn and get advice from them.
AR Why is the Venice Biennale still important, if at all? And what is the importance of showing there? Is it about visibility, inclusion, acknowledgement?
EB One cannot hide behind wordplay: being in Venice at the Biennale is still today a unique opportunity for an artist’s career. The visibility guaranteed by the Biennale is still one of the highest and most authoritative globally. Of course, it is necessary to participate with a project that is useful, lively, and even pedagogical, something that I believe first-time participating country pavilions may ensure more than others that have been participating for perhaps 120 years. I have noticed many ‘tired’ projects, countries that had almost nothing new to say in past editions. An art reduced to spectacle certainly does not contribute to understanding our times, a task that art and artists have always had and have the duty to interpret.
N The question ‘why?’ reminds me of the question of my art history professor at the academy. Because, I answer, we are still alive, so you can see (visibility) us (inclusion) and I hope in turn acknowledge… for TanzanItalia. It’s about wanting to express a vital message, together with my pavilion companions.
LM The Venice Biennale is a big thing, it’s a top biennale in the world. Its potential for art and artists to exhibit there is like a country football team entering the World Cup. All artist in the world want to show their artworks there because they will get exposure and enlarge there CVs and artistic experience.
HC For me as an artist this is a huge opportunity that is going to give me not only visibility but a chance to introduce myself in the world of art.
AR When you make artworks do you have a specific audience in mind?
N Yes. The (old) children. Each of us has been one. At least once.
HC When I create an artwork I do it for my own passion, so am not doing it for a specific audience.
AR Do you think there is such a thing as national art? Or is all art universal? Is there something that defines your nation’s artistic traditions? And what is misunderstood or forgotten about your nation’s art history?
EB The message of art, or rather of the artist, should be inherently universal, albeit shaped by each individual’s intimate experiences and the cultural background in which our worldview is born, nurtured and matures. Clearly, we must never run the risk of presenting a country in an international exhibition as promoting a ‘primacy of art’, that is, presenting our own art as superior to that of another country. This approach has been prevalent, especially in the West, until very recently – and perhaps still is to some extent today.
Furthermore, I believe that ‘young’ nations like Tanzania should not lose sight of their ancestral traditions. Recent history is crucial, but a comprehensive artistic education is achieved by embracing the millennia-old aspect of one’s own land… and Tanzania is one of the ‘cradles of humanity’ in this regard.
LM The country without culture is a dead country. If you want to kill a country, first you need to kill the culture. Every nation has their culture.
HC Yes of course, there’s something specific about the art of a nation but on other side it is still open and universal. And something people forget about is when they think that in Tanzania there’s only Tinga Tinga Art as it is well recognised all over, and they forget about us who are doing contemporary art.
N Art is always something personal (when art is free from economic constraints and fashions). However, dialogue between artists and between artists and the public is important.
HR Art is universal but there’s something that identifies the nation. Also, something forgotten about is that people imitate painting styles from different countries, which makes people unable to recognize the history of real art from the country.
AR If someone were to visit your nation, what three things would you recommend they see or read in order to understand it better?
LM First I will tell them to visit artist studios, art centres, art galleries and museum, but I also recommend visiting national parks and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and reading the history of Tanzania and history of our chief.
HC Galleries, National Museum, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro.
HR There are many places to visit, the first important place would be our national museum, Ngorongoro national park, which is the only place where lions can be found climbing a tree, and of course Mount Kilimanjaro.
AR Which other artists have influenced or inspired you?
LM When I was a child, I was inspired by my Brother late Ras Tobi and brother Enock who was an artist. When I grew older I was influenced by Dutch artist Maurits Escher after getting their book.
HC By the time I came seriously into the art industry, there was an artist called David Shepherd who inspired me a lot as I was doing wildlife painting before I moved to contemporary art.
N Franz Marc, the Italian and Russian Futurists, the Japanese Cartoonists. Poets such as Sir John Perse and ancient literature also influenced me.
HR There’s Haji Chilonga and Lutengano Mwakisopile.
AR What, other than your own work, are you looking forward to seeing while you are in Venice?
LM I would like to visit artist studios, art centres, art galleries and museums to get more exposure.
HC I am expecting to see different work by other artists that might help me learn more.
N I want to see it ALL, especially the exhibition curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
HR I look forward to seeing different styles of painting from other artists and learning from them.
The 60th Venice Biennale, 20 April – 24 November
