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Mutenga

Lovemore Meya : Arts Correspondent

Chitungwiza-based visual artist, Evans Mutenga left the country on Sunday for a three-month residence programme in Namibia. Mutenga whose future looks bright could not hide his excitement in an interview recently prior to his journey. “I will be in Namibia until the end of November for a residency programme. During my stay I will create some artworks at John Muafangejo Arts Centre that will be sealed with a solo exhibition at the end of my residence. My mind is full of ideas so to say that it will be difficult for me to come up with striking pieces is an understatement,” said Mutenga.

“The title I have chosen for my workings in Namibia is ‘Mixed Thoughts’. This theme is basically centralised on what I will be working on and that will involve mixing two cultures, ours and that of Namibians. I am going to work together with other artists from that country based at Muafangejo Arts Centre.”

“A residence is like a competition where one has to apply and if he or she qualifies they will get the chance to be invited to showcase their talent. Many artists applied and I was fortunate to be chosen.

“After the lapsing of the period, another artist will also go for the same time frame. I praise the Lord because this is my first time to be invited as a young artist. I am grateful and will represent the generality of the country’s finest talent.”

Mutenga said this was a good opportunity for him to be given time to create a body of work in a different setup.

“I think this helps an artist to grow, sharing ideas and learning one or two things from other artists with different types of art

The year is looking bright for Mutenga who won an award for the Best Painting during Wild Geese Arts Festival in May this year. Mutenga attended the National Gallery of Zimbabwe School of Visual Art and Design for three years. After his training he decided to join Village Unhu where he went further to fine-tune his dexterity.