ZVATIRI: Nyahunzvi's Declaration of Presence at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe

by Wadzanai Machirirori

At the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi’s solo exhibition 'Zvatiri' unfolds not simply as an exhibition of new work, but as a declaration. Translating to “The Way We Are,” the title carries the weight of assertion rather than description. It signals presence. It insists on continuity. In a Zimbabwe still negotiating the layered realities of post-colonial identity, spirituality, and institutional memory, Nyahunzvi positions the exhibition as an affirmation rather than a retrospective glance.

For the artist, Zvatiri is “a statement of presence, a declaration of existence. This is who we are, this is how we live, and this is what we value”. That insistence resonates powerfully in 2026 Zimbabwe. The exhibition does not frame identity as something fractured or nostalgic; instead, it proposes it as active and self-determined. Zimbabwean identity here is not curated for global consumption, nor softened for institutional comfort. It is articulated on its own terms.

Showing at the National Gallery inevitably shapes this articulation. The institution carries historic authority, cultural legitimacy, and the weight of expectation. Nyahunzvi acknowledges the significance of exhibiting in such a revered space, noting that it offered both visibility and credibility. Yet rather than be absorbed into institutional neutrality, he used the platform to challenge its boundaries. The exhibition became not just a presentation of objects, but an activation of space - a negotiation between contemporary practice and inherited systems.

Central to Zvatiri was a performative ritual of cultural reclamation. In the contemporary Zimbabwean art context, reclamation is not a fashionable slogan but a necessary intervention. Nyahunzvi frames it as taking back control of narratives, histories, and cultural practices long marginalised by colonial frameworks. The act of invoking mhondoro, activating padare, and deliberately re-centering indigenous spiritual presence inside a formal gallery space was neither decorative nor symbolic theatre. It was epistemological. It shifted the terms of engagement.

Sound became critical to this shift. The ngoma drum, hosho, and mbira did not function as aesthetic embellishments but as what might be described as spiritual architecture. Nyahunzvi speaks of sound as deeply rooted in Zimbabwean traditions, capable of evoking memory, ancestral connection, and emotional resonance. The performance created a sonic landscape that transported the gallery beyond the white-cube paradigm. Vibration replaced silence; rhythm displaced institutional stillness. The gallery ceased to be passive container and became ceremonial ground.

Material culture within the exhibition further reinforced this repositioning. Clay pots, drums, and mbira recur in Nyahunzvi’s practice, yet he resists reducing them to aesthetic references. He describes them as “living presences” and vessels of history and spiritual significance. This distinction is crucial. In many global contemporary contexts, indigenous objects risk being aestheticised, detached from their spiritual agency and reframed as exotic signifiers. Nyahunzvi counters that flattening by insisting on their vitality. The objects are not props. They are conduits - carriers of collective memory and ancestral continuity.

The question inevitably arises: can art genuinely decolonise institutions? Nyahunzvi approaches this tension with clarity rather than romanticism. Art, he acknowledges, is not a magic solution. Institutions are complex systems, and transformation requires structural change beyond aesthetic gesture. Yet art can act as catalyst. It can generate discomfort, provoke dialogue, and destabilise dominant narratives. In this sense, Zvatiri does not claim to dismantle institutional frameworks; it inserts friction into them. It interrupts inherited hierarchies of belief and authority, even if only temporarily.

Perhaps the most compelling quality of Zvatiri lies in its refusal to resolve itself neatly. Nyahunzvi hopes audiences leave “with more questions than answers”. The exhibition invites introspection rather than prescribing ideology. It asks viewers to reconsider assumptions about Zimbabwean identity, about the role of spirituality in contemporary art, and about the power dynamics embedded in cultural institutions. It foregrounds connection and empathy while acknowledging complexity.

In the end, Zvatiri operates as both affirmation and intervention. It affirms the endurance of indigenous spiritual frameworks and cultural knowledge systems. It intervenes within a national institution by reactivating it through sound, ritual, and presence. The exhibition does not seek validation; it asserts continuity. In doing so, Nyahunzvi reframes the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, even if momentarily, as a site where ancestral presence and contemporary artistic practice coexist without apology.

Zvatiri is currently on view at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare

 Wadzanai Machirirori is a writer and blogger from Harare. She holds a BA in Media and Communication.