Artistic Research Lecture Series: Masimba Hwati
Di. 10.3.2026
Vortrag
Eintritt frei!
This lecture examines artistic research as an embodied and process-based mode of inquiry, focusing on how sound, movement, ritual, and material engagement function as epistemic tools.
Drawing on a series of practice-led projects—Mbende Jerusarema Techno (2018), Ngoromera (2020), Black Market Sounds and Guerrilla Poetry: Mshika-Shika (2022), and Deep Struggle (2020–ongoing)—Masimba Hwati reflects on how visual art, performance, sound practice, and research intersect as ways of thinking and producing knowledge. The lecture explores movement as an archival and transmissive practice, sculpture as a site of embodied resistance, and sound as a fugitive research medium shaped by informality, circulation, and liveness. Attention is given to Deep Struggle and its extension into Toyi-Toyi, an ongoing performance and radio project that approaches toy-toyi as an embodied pedagogy of listening rooted in liberation struggle. Across these projects, the lecture articulates an ethics of humble and intimate custodianship, proposing artistic practice itself as a critical methodology for engaging history, struggle, and collective memory.
Masimba Hwati is an artist, researcher, and writer whose work explores how everyday forms of resistance and negotiation emerge through indigenous philosophies, sound practices, sculpture, and performance. Working at the intersection of sound, sculpture, video, and performative practice, his work approaches art as a mode of inquiry shaped by embodiment, listening, and historical memory. Hwati holds a National Diploma in Fine Art from Harare Polytechnic (Zimbabwe), an MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA), and a PhD in Art Practice from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Austria). His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including the ROM -Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Canada, University of Michigan Museum of Art (USA), Iziko South African National Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada), Manchester Contemporary,UK National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and several public and private collections in Europe and the United States. His practice extends into writing and sound composition. Recent publications include Chidzimbahwe Sonic Philosophies (2026), Der Seeteufel (2022), and Sokunge (As if) (2021). He has released several experimental sound works and has participated in residencies such as Skowhegan (USA) and the Radio Art Residency in Weimar (Germany). VIAD -University of Johannesburg (South Africa).Hwati is an Honorary Research Fellow at Rhodes University, South Africa
Masimba Hwati is an artist, researcher, and writer whose work explores how everyday forms of resistance and negotiation emerge through indigenous philosophies, sound practices, sculpture, and performance. Working at the intersection of sound, sculpture, video, and performative practice, his work approaches art as a mode of inquiry shaped by embodiment, listening, and historical memory. Hwati holds a National Diploma in Fine Art from Harare Polytechnic (Zimbabwe), an MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA), and a PhD in Art Practice from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Austria). His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including the ROM -Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Canada, University of Michigan Museum of Art (USA), Iziko South African National Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada), Manchester Contemporary,UK National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and several public and private collections in Europe and the United States. His practice extends into writing and sound composition. Recent publications include Chidzimbahwe Sonic Philosophies (2026), Der Seeteufel (2022), and Sokunge (As if) (2021). He has released several experimental sound works and has participated in residencies such as Skowhegan (USA) and the Radio Art Residency in Weimar (Germany). VIAD -University of Johannesburg (South Africa).Hwati is an Honorary Research Fellow at Rhodes University, South Africa