The Library of Things We Forgot To Remember

On Exhibition

• The Library of Things We Forgot To Remember X Umhlabathi -

  The Library of Things We Forgot To Remember X Umhlabathi

  This marks the first of many collaborative efforts and partnerships between The Library of Things We Forgot To Remember and Umhlabathi. The former, founded by visual artist Kudzanai Chiurai, is an archival space of vinyl recordings from across the continent and the diaspora made up of music, political speeches, poetry and interviews speaking to a contemporary and shared history of black people as they have, in different places, fought against oppression and struggled for freedom and expression.
  
  This freedom, in many ways, is what The Library affords within the context of independent and intellectual engagement whether it be through research and just sonic meditation, listening, learning and relearning. In this way, The Library is well placed to collaborate with other spaces that seek to speak to and celebrate the black experience while also nurturing and encouraging an engagement with it that is rooted in producing new knowledge and bringing the archive to life.
  
  This is where Umhlabathi comes in and fits beautifully with this first of many joint efforts. Umhlabathi, for its part, is a collective of multigenerational South African photographers including the iconic Andrew Tshabangu whose photographic work affords us an incredible archive and lens with which we can peer into our history and contemporary lives. A space dedicated to the nurturing of visual culture and photography in Southern Africa and Africa overall, Umhlabathi has as its main aim the creating of “a central collaborative space where different modes of photography will be used to engage various issues that are relevant to the continent and its inhabitants”. Beyond this it offers a space for guidance for young photographers and visual scholars alike. It aims to realize a way of seeing through partnership with people and organizations that share its vision and it is therefore, in this way, that Umhlabathi collaborates with The Library to allow for an exchange of ideas but also a widening of scope for audiences within each space.
  
  In this first offering, The Library x Umhlabathi presents an exhibition of works from three of its collective members: Jabulani Dhlamini, Tshepiso Mazibuko and Andile Komanisi. With The Library’s current librarian and art historian Mpho Moshe Matheolane co-curating alongside Ntate Andrew Tshabangu and Bafana Mzembe providing the installation, this exhibition is the promise of many more collaborative events between the two spaces as well as what should be a template for partnership between black led creative and intellectual spaces.