‘Women Here and Now’ at the Brazil-Mozambique Cultural Centre in Maputo
Paulina Chiziane and Sebastião Coana at Galeria do Porto de Maputo
4:39 CAT | 27 January 2025
Paulina Chiziane and Sebastião Coana at Galeria do Porto de Maputo
Writer Paulina Chiziane and visual artist Coana have joined forces for an aesthetic creation called "Dialogue between Letters and Colours", a live exhibition in which the pair share the stage and meld the art of painting and telling literary and sung stories.
According to a press release, the exhibition, a new concept in the artistic panorama of visual artist Coana, is a cosmic transformation, where the execution of his iconic lines and images, combined with his warm colours, with social and cultural expressions, create a symbiosis with the message sung by Paulina Chiziane.
The exhibition in which Coana will paint live opens this Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., with three 2-metre-square paintings on blank canvases, two of which will be auctioned on the 29th of this month at the Galeria do Porto in Maputo.
The exhibition by Coana and Paulina Chiziane includes 15 works of art that inspired the artist to survive the storms, works using mixed media on textured canvas and impasto, and will be open to the public from 30 January to 9 February.
"This is an exhibition that opens Coana's activities in 2025, from where it will be presented in the neighbourhoods after 9 February, through the Arte na Zona initiative, by the Associação Movimento Artístico, to a diverse audience, from the curious, students, beginners in painting, and others," reads the press release.
For Coana, the exhibition is a fusion of painting and literature. "As a young visual artist, it is an honour to be able to work with my mother Paulina Chiziane," Coana explains. "It is an initiative for other followers of the arts and enthusiasts. It is an event that is being held for the first time in Mozambique, and it is full of surprises. It is also an honour, as a visual artist, to have this opportunity to experience this experience of observing and creating opportunities for us to receive artistic nourishment from my mother Paulina for the artistic-cultural ecosystem in our country. As a young person, I will learn from my mother Paulina Chiziane and I also have the responsibility of teaching others who are following this field of visual arts, so that we can leave Mozambique with a generation of artists. Art is the essence of the human being. And everything else is the different expressions of art. All of us, artists, have the responsibility of making art an expression that can inspire and change society. When we paint, when we write and when we sing, we sometimes talk about a problem through art, we express what we feel, but deep down, a feeling of pain, there are thousands of people who also feel it, and it is the arts and culture that support us."
Colours, shapes and movements are also literary forms, said Paulina Chiziane. "Therefore, I don’t feel that there is a border between the different arts. On the contrary, all the arts are in common, they go together. And it is so good for me to work with the visual artist, Coana, because one of my childhood dreams was also to paint. But the family situation and the social condition at the time did not allow, especially for a woman to hold a paintbrush in her hand. My father still allowed me to hold a pen in my hand, but not a paintbrush. Firstly, there were no financial or material conditions. And secondly, because I am a woman and I have to be prepared as a woman for the life of the future," Chiziane said.
"When this opportunity came my way, I confess that this young Coana transported me to the world of my childhood. He made my childhood dream a reality that will happen today. And that moves me a lot. We often limit ourselves, we set boundaries within ourselves. These boundaries are imaginary, because within every human being there is all this dimension, all this power. It is a question of us discovering, pursuing the dream, walking until we reach a place that we cannot reach, the navel of infinity. And for me it is a privilege to be able to participate in this line, in this river called life. Yesterday I was a fruit, a seed, now I have become the root and today a shadow that can shelter this youth. The older ones have their time, they had their time, their history that constitutes the root and the shadow of this new generation. The new generation has other eyes and other horizons. And when we come together, sometimes generational conflict exists, which is normal. But this union between the old and the young opens new horizons and gives secure roots to those who are still active. I bring a tired body, a tired mind from all the wanderings and all the experience. The younger ones are light. And the lightness they bring, they lend me. How many times do I say, I want to rest today, I want to have my rest. Art as an essence is the expression of the soul and art is eternal."
Source: O País
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.