Mosi oa Tunya Perennial

Since 2020, we at LoCA have held many workshops, incubators and mini-labs. Enthusiastic conversations and debates, particularly around critical art theory, processes and access, have often led us to the question, 'Why don't we have our own biennale in Zambia?' A gathering of artists, curators and historians that could help change the contemporary art landscape? It is against this backdrop that the Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art (LoCA) is delighted to announce the Mosi Oa Tunya Perennial, its first mega-scale international exhibition that will traverse the cities of Livingstone, Zambia, and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, taking place from 12 September 2026.

The exhibition Mosi oa Tunya Perennial, under the theme, Sonic Solidarities: Legacies, Histories and Other Gossips, draws inspiration from global Art Biennales worldwide. But aims to reflect what a biennial can be in places like Zambia, Botswana, or Lesotho, and other Southern African nations that have limited formal arts education institutions, museums of contemporary or modern art, let alone entry into current discourse and knowledge production. It adopts the idea of perennial movement of animals and people throughout the history of the region and the present day, and asks the question whether:

An international exhibition can be structured based on the perennial animal corridors in our geographical region, which defy regulatory boarders and immigration laws?

We have adopted the idea of "Perenniality" to define a mode or method in which sustainability of resources, economy and agency occurs. We think of it as a process that allows rejuvenation within itself in that when something is running out, overused or outrun, it resuscitates itself or finds a way to adapt by necessity." The loop quality of the animal perennial corridors is in the animal's ability to adapt, but it also exposes the flaws of man's inability to understand nature.

A lot has changed or developed since we first posed the question above three years ago. One thing that has developed is an array of scenarios, stories, and gossip embedded within the unexposed oralities that emphasise the uncertainties of when “the outsider” attempts to read us.

What do these scenarios, stories and gossip that are rooted in collaborative and community resistance experiences mean today, and how do we revisit them? What kind of narratives can they generate to shift, strengthen us and repulse the uncertainties in which we sometimes identify ourselves and the misinterpretation of our histories? Our region (Southern and Sub-Saharan Africa) has always had an interconnected history, not only through our visible wildlife corridors but also through human exchanges that extend to blood relations, politics and clusters of solidarity through social-democratic ideologies, anti-apartheid resistance, and non-alignment gatherings of the late 50s to the 60s.

Therefore, it must mean different things to reflect and aspire to an international exhibition similar to large exhibitions like that of an 'Art biennial'. This Perennial has to be an international exhibition informed by our lack, but also by our resources and aspiration to become a place of cultural and barter exchanges that reflects on the transitory historic junction that Livingstone is and has been since the 1800s. A component that still determines her identity today.

To think about an Art Biennial here, one must shift away from the conventional idea or understanding of the 'Biennial' as we know it. "Here", the Biennial must be more than just creating a momentous happening that occurs every two years, adding to the jet-setting identity that pursues biennials. It has to be thought of from the mind-state of a perenniality that equates to sustainability, hence our animal corridor analogy. The comment above is not a critique levelled against the biennial structure in Europe and other places but an open invitation to rethink other models and create a more relevant alternative that would function in the cases of places like Livingstone in Zambia.

Our advisory committee includes

Gabi Ngcobo, Lerato Bereng, Zasha Colah, N’Gonè Fall, Ade Darmawan, Victoria Phiri, Romeo Gongora, and Elvira Dyangani Ose, Nontobeko Ntombela, Nashilongwe Mushaandja.

Institutional comrades/partners

Ora Loapi, Chimurenga, OnCurating, Picha, Tenthaus, ARAC, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Njabala Foundation, Zeitz Mocaa, National Arts Council Zambia, Livingstone National Museum, National Gallery-Livingstone, WayiWayi and the African Film Institute in New York.

LoCA