Rehema Chachage
b. 1987, Dar es Salaam, lives in Vienna.
Rehema Chachage is a visual artist whose practice can be viewed as a performative archive. Chachage collects histories tied to women in the Swahili region – stories, rituals, melodies, relics, and oral and written forms. Studying and intervening with these sources, the artist engages a playful research-based process of art and archival production.
Education
Current: PhD in Practice, Academy of Fine Art Vienna, Vienna.
2018: Master of Arts (MA), Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London, London.
2009: Bachelor of Arts (BA), Fine Art, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
Solo Exhibitions (Tanzania and South Africa)
2013: Mshanga, Nafasi Art Space, Dar es Salaam.
2010: Chipuza ('Germinate’), Goethe Institute Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.
2009: Haba na Haba, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
Solo Exhibitions (International)
2023: Nitakujengea kinyumba na vikuta vya kupitia [A Home for You I Will Create with Exit Pathways – A Gut Feeling], Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Wien, Austria
2017: Mlango wa Navushiku (Navushiku’s Lineage), Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi.
2012: Orupa Mchikirwa/Mshanga (residency exhibition), Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi.
Group Exhibitions (Tanzania and South Africa)
2020: Tomorrow there will be more of us, The Inaugural Stellenbosch Triennale, Concepts of Freedom Pavilion, Stellenbosch.
2018: Converge, RAW Spot Gallery, Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.
2016: East Africa Focus, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg.
2016: Consuming us, special projects, Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town.
Group Exhibitions (International)
2024: Flickering, Lingering, Exiting, VBKÖ (Vereinigung bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs), Vienna
2023: Meet Me by the Fire (duo exhibition with Huda Takriti), Vienna
2019: Amani: In the footsteps of a colonial research station, MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg.
2019: LIVE WORKS, Performance Act Award 2019, Drodesera.
2018: Dak’Art, African Contemporary Art Biennale, Dakar.
2017: THAT, AROUND WHICH THE UNIVERSE REVOLVES: On Rhythmanalysis of Memory, Times, Bodies in Space, A Collaboration of SAVVY Contemporary with FFT Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf.
2016: In the blink of an eye, Arthub Asia, Shanghai.
2016: When things fall apart: Critical voices on the radars, Trapholt Museum, Kolding.
2016: Kabbo ka muwala/ The girl’s basket, (migrating exhibition), Harare; Kampala; Bremen.
2015: African Odysseys, BRASS Cultural Centre of the Forest, Brussels.
2014: Where we’re at! Other voices on gender, Bozar, Brussels.
2013: 18th International Contemporary Festival VIDEOBRASIL, Sao Paolo.
2013 - 2014: STILL FIGHTING IGNORANCE & INTELLECTUAL PERFIDY: Video Art from Africa, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; 28th edition of VIDEOFORMES, Clermont-Ferrand; Motorenhalle, Dresden; Kunsthalle São Paulo, São Paulo; Ben Uri Museum, London.
2012: Story on Story, Akiyoshidai International Art Village. Yamaguchi.
Awards
2023: H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance.
2022: Shortlist, Vordemberge-Gildewart Award
2020: Shortlist, Henrike Grohs Art Award.
2016: Pro-Helvetia Ant Funding Grantee, for solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare.
2014: African Arts Trust Grantee, for incubation and running of Kuta-na Sanaa: A residency and mentorship-programmed project at Nafasi Art Space, Dar es Salaam.
2014: Apexart Franchise 2nd Winner, for Beauty Salons and the Beast.
Residencies and Fellowships
2017: Research Fellow, Arts of Africa and the Global South, Rhodes University, Fine Art Department, Grahamstown.
2016: Artist in Residence, ZK/U (Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik), Berlin.
2015: Artist in Residence (April - June), Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam.
2012: Artist in Residence (January - March), Akiyoshidai International Artist Village (AIAV), Yamaguchi.
2011: Artist in Residence (July - September), Nordic Artists' Centre Dalsåsen, Dale i Sunnfjord.
Workshops and Presentations
2019: Panellist, The Burden of Memory: Considering German colonial history in Africa, Goethe-Institut, Yaoundé.
2019: Artist Talk, in Vizazi: Contemporary visual culture of Tanzania, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
2015: Performative Lecture, Today’s standard of African Beauty, during 'VENUS - The anti-hero hero', Framer Framed, Amsterdam.
2015: Presentation, Representation & Invisibility (illuminating questions on power structures and relations within the art world, in terms of gender, status, Western hegemony on taste, representation, etc), Supermarket Independent Art Fair, Stockholm.
2014: Panellist, How Contemporary is Tanzanian Art?, during exhibition 'Imaginings: The Worlds of George Lilanga', National Museum and House of Culture, Dar es Salaam.
Curatorial Projects
2016: Co-curator, About Time: The Exhibition (an exhibition of lens-based media interventions), Stone Town, 09 - 17 July.
2015: Co-curator, Impose/Expose: Art Revealing Space (an exhibition of nine artistic interventions in central Dar es Salaam), 26 September – 10 October.
2015: Co-curator, Beauty Salons and the Beast (an apexart winning franchise with site-specific interventions in Beauty Salons and Barbershops of Dar es Salaam), Dar es Salaam, 07 February - 07 March.
Publications
(featuring the artist's work)
2024: Emanuel Admassu, Anita N. Bateman, Where is Africa, vol. 1, Centre for Art, Research and Alliances, New York: 290-308.
2017: Ruth Simbao, Reaching Sideways, Writing Our Ways: The Orientation of the Arts of Africa Discourse, with William B. Miko, Eyitayo Tolulope Ijisakin, Romuald Tchibozo, Masimba Hwati, Kristin NG-Yang, Patrick Mudekereza, Aidah Nalubowa, Genevieve Hyacinthe, Lee-Roy Jason, Eman Abdou, Rehema Chachage, Amanda Tumusiime, Suzana Sousa and Fadzai Muchemwa, 'African Arts' vol 50(2): 10-29.
2017: Margareta Wallin Wictorin, An African woman coming to voice through a multi-modal work in 'Concurrent Imaginaries, Postcolonial Worlds: Toward Revised Histories', Brydon; Forsgren; Fur (eds), Leiden/Boston: Brill. 211-226.
2014: PRŌTOCOLLUM: An artists’ journal for contemporary non-Western art, vol 1: 66.
2014: AFRIKADAA: Afro Design and Contemporary Arts, in 'Image En Mouvement: Re-Inventing Narratives', vol 8: 112-113.
2014: Africa Masters: Rising Stars (Tanzania Edition), The African Channel, London.
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