POWERPLAY

About

POWERPLAY
featuring works by Mr Color, Bolatito Aderemi Ibitola, Vincent Bezuidenhout, Scumboy, King Debs, Mbakisi Sibanda, Kumbirai Makumbe, and Isaac Kariuki. Virtual Reality iteration made by Christopher MacInnes.

Opening event: Saturday 15th August, 3 - 6pm
Exhibition dates: 15th August - 26th September, 2020 at arebyte Gallery, London
October 2020 (TBC) at National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo.
VR iteration traveling to National Gallery of Zimbabwe Harare and Mutare (date TBC)

arebyte Gallery and The National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo are pleased to announce POWERPLAY, a group exhibition featuring artists working within digital media, moving image and technology. Co-commissioned by London-based arebyte Gallery and the National Gallery Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, with support from the New Art New Audiences grant from the British Council. The first showing of the exhibition will be presented at arebyte Gallery in London, before travelling to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. POWERPLAY will be the first exhibition of digital and new media art at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Harare and Mutare.

POWERPLAY foregrounds the digital arts scene in Africa and presents work by digital artists who are from or based in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the UK. Discussing the use of technology in creating a sense of identity and place within a digitised world, the artists in the exhibition look at the relationships of power experienced in varying ways. The works address isolation and alienation; societal bias around gender and race; transformation of being; the politics of borders and migration; dark markets of trade; and communities who work outside of the mainstream economy. Taking place both online and offline, the multi-sited exhibition format brings to light the fluidity between the virtual and the real - how is power asserted over our decisions and movements, what are the consequences, and how can we think about control differently

More information on artists and works: https://www.arebyte.com/powerplay 

The artists' works will be shown as a 6 week multimedia installation in arebyte Gallery, London. Throughout the duration of the physical exhibition, interviews with the artists will be available to view on arebyte on screen (AOS), arebyte Gallery’s digital art channel, as well as a virtual tour of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo gallery space by UK based artist Christopher MacInnes.

This exhibition is made in partnership with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, and is supported by the British Council’s New Art New Audiences grant.