March 27th 2025 - May 30th 2025

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The weaver bird built in our house

And laid its eggs on our only tree.

We did not want to send it away.

We watched the building of the nest

And supervised the egg-laying.

And the weaver returned in the guise of the owner.

Preaching salvation to us that owned the house [...]

 

The Weaver Bird by Kofi Awoonor

 

Osart Gallery, in collaboration with Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio, is pleased to present Weaverbirds: Rooted in Resilience, an exhibition that brings together for the first time the work of multidisciplinary artists María Magdalena Campos-Pons (Cuba, 1959) and Sethembile Msezane (South Africa, 1991). Based on the concept of post-colonialism, understood as a defining moment marking the end of the colonial period and the need to rediscover an identity that was lost, the two artists explore themes of tradition, spirituality, identity, and the role of women in contemporary society. Although their backgrounds differ geographically and generationally, Campos-Pons and Msezane share a desire to redefine the boundaries of their selves, ravaged by centuries of violence, cultural and linguistic hegemony, and a need to restore dignity to their communities and reconnect with their ancestral land.

 

The image of the weaverbird, endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, is the totem that guides the viewer through the practice of both artists: Campos-Pons uses different bird species in her iconic photographic series Nesting (2000s), while Msezane continues her research on weaving techniques through her Paintings on mull, embroidered with thread, hair, and natural elements (one work from this series was a finalist for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2024).

 

Like the weaverbird, the two artists offer a personal perspective on the search for their identity as African or African descent women in contemporary society: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose roots trace back to a troubled family history beginning in Nigeria—where her ancestors were deported to Cuba in the 19th century and enslaved on sugar plantations—focuses on the importance of representing ethnic minorities in art and shedding light on the tragedy of deportation and slavery; Sethembile Msezane centers her research on spirituality and the ecology of being, through the analysis of dreams and the transmission of historical memory, questioning the absence of the Black female body both in narratives and in the physical spaces dedicated to celebrating the national history of various African countries.

 

In the poem The Weaver Bird by Ghanaian Kofi Awoonor, the weaverbird metaphorically embodies the figure of the colonizer, who builds the nest and lays eggs “on the only tree,” eventually becoming its lord and master, expecting the local population to obey its rules and preaching salvation to those who had been the sole inhabitants of the land until recently. This bird is considered a colonial species, hence the comparison to the image of the colonizer. Nevertheless, the weaverbird is also the one who creates the most intricate and spectacular nests in the animal kingdom, gathering straw and other materials to create marvelous and complex architectures.

 

A significant work for Sethembile Msezane was the one that catapulted her into the spotlight, titled Chapungu – The Day Rhodes Fell—immortalized in an iconic photograph embodied on April 9, 2015, when the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, the controversial founder of the state of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was removed from the entrance of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The artist embodied the figure of Chapungu, a sacred native Zimbabwean bird of prey, who spread its wings in the act of returning to its homeland from which it had been exiled and persecuted due to colonial violence. Similarly, the works of María Magdalena Campos-Pons are strongly connected to the imagery of birds and nests, where the birds symbolize the constant search for one’s roots through flight, while the nest, often associated with Afro hair and intricate African-style hairstyles, represents the only place of peace and serenity, the motherland restored to its children.

 

The natural element thus becomes central in both Msezane’s and Campos-Pons’ practices. The two artists celebrate the different components of nature from an intimate perspective, while also tied to the spiritual practices of their respective cultures—Yoruba for Campos-Pons and Zulu for Msezane: human figures immersed in dreamlike settings, collages of plants and tree bark, waterfalls of hair adorned with seashells and soaked in seawater, gouache, gold leaf. Everything is imbued with spirituality and ancestral practices that keep traditions and collective memory alive, aiming to exorcise the centuries-old trauma of the colonial experience.