Zimbabwe (Republic of) 2026

Title: Second Nature | Manyonga
Commissioner: Raphael Chikukwa, National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ)
Curator: Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa
Exhibitors: Gideon Gomo, Eva Raath, Felix Shumba, Franklyn Dzingai, Pardon Mapondera

“Second Nature | Manyonga” takes its title from two complementary concepts. “Second nature” refers to the instincts and habits that develop under sustained disruption; “Manyonga,” a Shona term for fragments or scattered remnants, points to the reality of fractured systems and lives. Together they frame an exhibition about rupture and renewal, examining how individuals and communities adapt and reimagine themselves in conditions of prolonged uncertainty.

The five participating artists bring distinct visual languages to this shared inquiry. Gomo works with layered surfaces and mixed media to map the psychological terrain of repeated adaptation; Raath’s painting and installation practice explores fragility and transformation, the states suspended between breakdown and becoming; Dzingai’s figurative work examines the emotional costs of instability and the persistence of imagination within it. Shumba’s sculpture bridges heritage and contemporary form, addressing cultural endurance under global pressure, while Mapondera constructs immersive environments from repurposed materials that embody the exhibition’s central argument: that survival is not static but adaptive, a constant reshaping of self and space. The pavilion is designed as a cohesive environment in which painting, sculpture, and installation work in dialogue rather than in isolation.