Kulungwana and Mozal bestow Best Artists of the Year awards

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Kulungwana and Mozal bestow Best Artists of the Year awards

8:53 CAT | 30 Oct 2019

Photo: O País

The Kulungwana Association and Mozal last Thursday in Maputo bestowed the Best Mozambican Artists of the Year awards.

With music and dance, and in an atmosphere of suspense and expectation, guests joined the event to acknowledge the laureates at the Mozal Arts and Culture Awards.

In total, seven artists there distinguished: Nelly Guambe Visual Arts), Orlando Mabasso Jr. ( Cinema and Audiovisual), Yassmin Forte (Photography), Pak Ndjamena (in Dance), Sufaida Moiane (Theatre), Nivaldo Thierry (Fashion Design) and Deltino Guerreiro (iMusic).

The jury composed of Severino Ngoenha (philosopher and art critic), Gabriel Mondlane (INCC Director), Basil Muchate (Professor and photographer), Vasco Rocha (Maputo Fashion Week Director), Paulo Chibanga (AZGO Festival Director), Quito Tembe (Kinani Festival Director) and Antonio Sopa (representing Kulungwana), elected Josefina Massango as chairperson.

Josefina Massango is an actress, director and former director of the Theatre course at the Eduardo Mondlane University School of Communication and Arts (ECA).

Massango talked about the difficulty of deciding on the winners in a group of 21 artists recognised by the public for their competence and prominence. She also spoke of the intricacies of gathering as much information as possible from artists from around the country, who, she said, “all have the quality to deserve to be among the nominees [for the award]”.

For Mozal, Mozambican culture is in great condition, and it is in recognition of this “cultural richness” that the institution decided to create a prize to encourage lesser known young talent.

The Mozal Arts and Culture Awards are a bet on the future of the country’s arts, and an important step in enhancing the talent of young artists and highlighting their creations. This is what Kulungwana wants, the association’s executive director Henny Matos said. Kulungwana has been developing cultural development projects for more than ten years.

Henny Matos says the Mozal Arts and Culture Awards fill a void in the attention given to young artists in the country, so the prize is not meant to be assessed on its monetary value, but in terms of promoting and giving visibility to the artists’ best work.

In addition to their trophies and certificates, the winning 2019 Mozal Arts and Culture Awards artists received 120,000 meticais in prize money. All short-listed nominees were awarded a diploma in recognition of the exemplary quality of their work.

The Mozal Arts and Culture Awards are given to young Mozambican artists who have been protagonists of a particularly relevant and innovative intervention in the country’s artistic life, notably in view of the rigour and originality of their work during the twelve months preceding the award or following a previous activity.

Source: O País