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

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.

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