Africa-Press – Mozambique. A group of 40 Mozambican artists were invited to create an open-air art gallery along Maputo’s waterfront, painting containers for the Mercado Municipal do Frango e Magumba, a new restaurant and socialising space.
The area between the avenue and the beach will house the dozens of stalls that until two years ago proliferated in a disorderly manner along the Costa do Sol beach and were removed by the municipality, which now prohibits commerce in inappropriate places such as public walkways.
With buckets of paint, brushes and sprays-painters in hand, the 40 plastic artists depicted “Mozambican culture”, portraying movement, figures and landscapes on the 36 containers set to be transformed into restaurants for the sale of chicken and magumba (a variety of fish similar to sardines).
The initiative is one of the municipality of Maputo, in collaboration with the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA).
“We transmit the culture,” and “the tones have a lot to do with this tropical space”, Samuel Djive, one of the plastic artists and curator involved in the project, told Lusa.
Djive has been a visual artist for over 15 years, a passion nurtured since he was a child, that led him to the Maputo School of Arts and which he wants to grow with higher education in the same area, he explained.
“For me, the open-air gallery is very good because it is for everyone, regardless of the person’s social status. Everyone can come here and enjoy it,” the artist said, while putting the finishing touches to the container he had just painted.
In the first phase, 13 containers have been painted, to be followed by another 23 in the second phase, which should end this weekend, explained CIN representative Nicole Henriques, who is supplying the paint for the initiative.
“We ourselves feel that art and culture are aspects that need to be valued on a daily basis. It is important that they are exhibited, not only in art galleries, but in interventions like this one,” he commented.
The 40 artists are associated with the Maputo Arts Centre, and were selected via a competition in which each one presented a sketch.
Eugénio Saranga, a visual artist for 30 years, was one of those selected and thinks that the market will be a good space for people to interact with art and leisure, lamenting the fact that few Mozambicans visit galleries.
“Bringing art out into the open is bringing it closer to the public, to people who don’t normally go to the galleries,” he said, guiding his brush over the image of a boat with fishermen.
The project is budgeted at around 70 million meticais (€948,000), according to Bruno Miguel, architect and president of the Land and Environment department at the CTA, who adds that the idea for the gallery arose from a desire to “embrace artists” feeling the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the installation of the market, the space was “rather abandoned”, and did not present a good example for “the image of the city”, Miguel noted.
The new Municipal Market do Frango e Magumba, which still lacks a concrete date for its inauguration, will host around 209 sellers.
