Purpose

Kudzanai Chiurai (b. 1981) is a Zimbabwean artist. He incorporates various media into his work, which is largely focused on cycles of political and economic inequality, and conflict resolution in post-colonial societies.

His work, The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, is an archive of materials including vinyls, posters, paintings and more, drawn from private African collections. Each time this archive is exhibited, Chiurai invites a different librarian to interrogate the archive and curate an exhibition. In his own words:

“The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember is a work that I consider to be itself a form of liberated zone. It functions independently – I work with different librarians every time there’s an iteration of it, and every guest librarian sees the process of cataloguing differently. Some approach it visually, and others aurally – and so bring to our attention dialogues and ideas forgotten but still very much a part of our present.

“I consider the archival material and recording as broadcasts of Afro-futures. A frequency that mobilised and energised the struggle for independence and liberation. It's an archive that brings the past into the present and will continue to echo as we consider our futures.”

Curated by:
Kudzanai Chiurai
// 44 Stanley, Johannesburg, 2021
// Currently on show, mail us for more: library@kudzanaichiurai.com
Furniture design: DOKTER AND MISSES
Photo credit: Anthea Pokroy
Candice Allison
01
01
Madness and Civilisation
Curated by:
Candice Allison
// Cape Town
// Goodman Gallery
// 2018
Under the continued curation of Candice Allison, Madness and Civilization re-stages this exhibition alongside new works and research that highlights Chiurai’s creative projects over the past two years. It takes its title from Michel Foucault’s seminal 1964 text Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. In so doing, the exhibition maintains Chiurai’s practice of revisiting and rejecting ‘colonial futures’, which fuel the notion that Africans should think, speak, and act like their colonizers.
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Sifiso Khanyile
02
02
The Liberation Blues, Dues and Hues
Curated by:
Sifiso Khanyile
// Goodman Gallery
// Johannesburg
// 2019
Prompted by the title: The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, Sifiso Khanyile drew from filmmaker Lionel Ngakane’s documentary Vukani/Awake! as a point of departure and arrival for his engagement with the collection of artworks and vinyls. Ngakane, a lesser-known peer of Sembene, Hondo, Mambety, was remembered in this iteration. The film commiserated with the record and art selection, finding an uncomfortable position within the timeline of Black Peoples’ oppression and struggles.
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The Library Celebrates
03
03
The Library Celebrates
Spotlight feature on:
Future Nostalgia
&
Njelele Art Station
With distinct similarities between the themes, subject matter and purposes of these two audio-based projects and that of The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, Kudzanai highlights Future Nostalgia and Njelele Art Station (as well as the artists behind them) as noteworthy and inspirational.

Both projects – or movements, rather – bring the past into the present, with memory and lived experiences central to the content.
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