Laura Fungai

I studied MA Arts Management and Heritage Studies at the University of Leeds (UK). My course enabled me to study interpretive and participatory practices in contemporary art museums and galleries. Critical focus was on connecting art works and audiences. Interactions and conversations with curators at Henry Moore Institute enabled an understanding of issues of curating and research contexts around modern sculpture. My main areas of specialisation was on management and leadership of museums and galleries, critical issues, gender and contemporary art. This influenced the development of thesis, titled "Politics of curating gender in contemporary Zimbabwe". I have taken up professional curatorial research opportunities where I have further explored my Curatorial interests which are anchored in issues of collaboration, co-creation and social justice in museums and galleries. I am a TURN2 Curatorial Research Fellow at ZK/U Berlin, where I focused on social power dynamics within the migration movement within the historical relationships od Germany and Africa. Interrogating notions of belonging, space, resistance and identity. I was able to visit several museums and research on works that respond to this thematic research. I am a fellow of Independent Curators International (ICI) as I participated in the Kampala Curatorial intensive organized by ICI. I presented a proposal on feminized work and labour practices through the work of women artists. I am in the process of fundraising for this exhibition proposal.
Current Curatorial projects are focusing on participatory, collaboration and social justice perspectives in museums, galleries and exhibition practices. Creating circles of enable responsive and inclusive museums. I have the honor of writing a Curatorial text published in the Fellbach Triennial (2022) catalogue, and a commissioned writing on women artists in Zimbabwe published in a tourism online magazine. these are " "Embodiments of perceptual echoes of colonial resistances" (2022), Triennial Fellbach Curatorial text, Archive Books, Germany and "Women artists in/visibilities in contemporary art practice" (2022), Yedu Lani Magazine, Issue 14, Harare, Zimbabwe

Curated exhibitions include Zvepano (2022) At the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. It was a conceptual and experimental exhibition by three female artists who focused on notions of community, identity, self-preservation and motherhood. Materiality was at the centre of the exhibition where it challenged notions of what can be shown in a contemporary gallery in terms of performative works. The works included photography,
Contours of Resistance (2022) was an interrogation of diverse forms of resistance to political, social and economic emerging from young people in Zimbabwe. The work moved from political to personal resistances to ideologies and oppressive mechanisms of state, society or family controlled phenomena. It was a rich collection of mixed media, found objects, paintings and collage presented by four male artists.
Sounds of the sacred web (2020) which was a performative exhibition of African cultural heritage in partnership with Nigeria. This exhibition included explorations of culture in terms of beliefs, chants, rituals and dance and their connections to contemporary societies for enhanced social cohesion and connections.