AFRICA.- The All Africa.Com’s Lerato Maleke reported that Kuru artists from D’Kar near Ghanzi, are preparing for their first retrospective exhibition, Dòro-qhãò Mola wa godimo in Setswana or Rainbow in English. The event will open on June 1 in the main gallery of the National Museum in Gaborone. It will run till June 20. There will be art on show from the very first years of the project’s existence (1991) up to now. A large number of art works from the Kuru permanent art collection will be on show. Some artworks will also come from private collections. Some of the early works will be on sale as well as new creations.
According to Cecilia Durkin who is working closely with the artists in Gaborone, the Member of Parliament for Mmadinare Ponatshego Kedikilwe will open the exhibition. She says the exhibition promises to be a great event. The Kuru Art Project is an income-generating project for the San in D’kar. It originated in 1990 and so far there are 14 artists participating in the project. They work in different techniques, but are well known for their colorful oil paintings on canvas, black and white linoleum prints, color linoleum prints and lithographs. Fourteen years after its inception, the art from the project, continues to stimulate the imagination.” Its success with modern media has amazed everybody. The artists’ wonderfully vibrant use of color, their simultaneously fresh and prehistoric images have earned them a position among the world’s foremost artists," said Durkin. Throughout the 14 years, the Kuru artists have exhibited extensively. The Kuru Art Project has had 66 exhibitions at several venues around the world.
These include the National Gallery, Zimbabwe, the South African National Museum, the Pretoria Art Museum, the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London, Images of Africa in Copenhagen, Volkenkunde Museum in The Netherlands, Iwalawa-Haus in Germany, Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Australia, Kani City Public Arts Centre in Japan and Dusable Museum in Chicago among others.
Apart from these exhibitions Durkin says the artists also received several awards over the years, and as such, they have gained their rightful place in the contemporary art scene. In 1993, they were honored with the Prize Ex Aequo at the International print Triennial Graphica Creativa in Finland. As a result some of the artists Thamae Setshogo, Qhaqhoo Xare and Qwaa Mangana, took part in Intergrafia "94, World Award Winners Gallery in Poland and Sweden. In 1996, one of the artists Sobe Sobe received the Jury Honorable Mention at the Graphica Creativa Exhibition in Finland.
The Kuru artists were then invited to exhibit in the Intergrafia 1997 World Award Winners Gallery in Poland. In 2003, the work of Coex’ae Bob, Thamae Setshogo and X’are Thama qualified for the Main Exhibition of the International Print Triennial in Poland and the work of Xgaoc’o X’are were included in the Etching versus Digital exhibition - a part of the International Print Triennial. In 1997 a painting of Cg’ose Ntcoxo was chosen as one of a collection of world images for British Airways.
The image traveled the world on the tailfins of eight British Airways planes and carried the name of Cg’ose, the Kuru Art Project and Botswana. In 2004, four paintings by Kuru artists Nxaedom Qhomatca (Ankie), Qgoma Ncokg’o (Qmao) and Cg’ose Ntcox’o were chosen by the Botswana Postal Services for a new collection of Botswana stamps. In 1995, the Kuru Art Project together with the Artists Press in South Africa produced Qauqaua, the first book of a traditional San story, written in a San language, as told by San artists, illustrated with original lithographs by San artists and bound in traditionally tanned goatskin.
Qauqaua was selected in 2001 for the "Voyages Exhibition" of the Smithsonian Institute Libraries and was listed by the Grolier Book Club as one of the top ten highlights of the exhibition. As their ancestors have done in years gone by, the San artists from the Kuru Art Project still create images that amaze the world. Scenes and forms, mysterious to the western eye, come naturally to them. To them, the forms they create have meaning and are part of their natural existence.
"Art is an old recipe. It comes from our ancestors," says Dada Qgam, one of the oldest of the Kuru artists.
"It started with creation and will always be part of the human being," says Xgaiga Qhomatca, one of the 14 Kuru artists.
