100% Africa exhibition [in situ view] - 2006

Artworks:
Bicicleta rural, 1998 (Wood and ropes) & Avião da nova era, 2004 (Mixed media)
© Titos Mabota

AFRICA, 2006
Photo: Erika Barahona Ede
© FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao

Avião da nova era - 2004

190 x 200 x 320 cm
Mixed media

Avião da nova era - 2004

190 x 200 x 320 cm
Mixed media

Avião da nova era - 2004

190 x 200 x 320 cm
Mixed media

Avião da nova era - 2004

190 x 200 x 320 cm
190 x 200 x 320

Titos Mabota standing next to his plane.

Avião da nova era [detail] - 2004

190 x 200 x 320 cm
Mixed media

Bicicleta rural - 1998

180 x 150 x 350 cm
Wood and ropes

Bicicleta rural [detail] - 1998

180 x 150 x 350 cm
Wood and ropes

Bicicleta rural [detail] - 1998

180 x 150 x 350 cm
Wood and ropes

Titos Mabota

Fernando Agostinho Mabota, called Titos Mabota

Born in 1963

Died in 2017

Lived and worked in Maputo, Mozambique.

In Mozambique, the modern and contemporary rendering of traditional makondé sculpture has long been one of Africa’s most prestigious artistic expressions. It is still made today on the high plains of the Mueda region and in neighbouring Tanzania. Only when the civil war ended in 1993 did Mozambique recover the peace and freedom that would foster an explosion of creative activity by young artists. Numerous artists born during the war years quickly established an art scene imbued with the details of their daily life and the traumas they had experienced. The sculptures by Gonzalo and Koestler based on weapons – fists grenades and bazookas – are most representative of these trends. As they have learned to use their new freedom, some artists painters and photographers, painters and photographers have developed works less closely linked to this historical context.

These artists have formed associations known as “Art Cores”, which comprise not so much an artistic movement as a place for sharing, for working and for holding permanent exhibitions. This is the context in which Titos Mabota most often works. His work is quite distinctive, seemingly crude and cobbled together, but in fact very carefully thought out and painstakingly executed over long stretches of time. He himself declares that in his rare monumental works, the notions of good, evil and truth are omnipresent. For this artists, art must change life and be intelligible to all his long-suffering people.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015

L’art et la machine, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France

2014

Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy: From the Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

2007

Why Africa?

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Turin, Italy

2006

100% Africa

Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao, Spain

2005

As Portas Do Mundo

Evora, Portugal

2005

Africa Hammer

CCFM, Maputo, Mozambique

2005

Biennale of Johannesbourg, South Africa

As Portas Do Mundo, Evora, Portugal

Africa Hammer, CCFM, Maputo, Mozambique

2004

Africa Remix.

Düsseldorf, Germany, Museum kunst palest July 24-November 7, 2004;

London, United Kingdom: Hayward Gallery, February 10-April 17, 2005;

Paris, France: Centre Georges Pompidou, May 15-August 20, 2005;

Tokyo, Japan: Mori Art Museum, June-September 2006.

Catalogue (published in German, English and French).

1999

Astrup Fearley Museum, Oslo, Norway

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010

"O cavalo de Tróia", CCFM, Maputo, Mozambique

2002

“A Moto”, CCFM, Maputo, Mozambique

2001

“Dimensoes Tradicionais”, CCFM, Maputo, Mozambique

1994

Association Mozambicaine de Photographie, Maputo, Mozambique

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2015

L’art et la machine, Musée des Confluences, Exhibition catalogue, Lienart publishers, Paris

2007

Why Africa?

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.

2006

100% Africa

Exhibition catalogue. Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

2005

Titos Mabota, - Sculpteur (Les carnets de la création : Mozambique).

Texte de Juan M. Altacampo (trilingue français, portugais et anglais)

Éd. de l'œil, Montreuil