It is not only a great honour but also a personal pleasure for me to be here today at the launch of what is surely the most exciting visual arts project in Southern Africa this year.

We have heard a lot of fascinating background to the project from His Excellency and my expert colleagues.

But I would like to take this opportunity, if I may, to try and answer a question that has been put to me frequently over the last eight months: why is the British Council partnering with the National Gallery and Government of Zimbabwe to bring a contemporary art exhibition to the Venice Biennale?

As some of you may know, the British Council is the UK’s organization for cultural relations.  We operate in 190 countries and exist to build lasting links between people across the globe. Our work in the Arts, Education and English opens up dialogue and creates opportunities for the 3 million people who engage in our projects and programmes every year. 

But we do not achieve this alone.  Our international partnerships are absolutely vital to our success. It is only through collaboration with inspirational and influential organizations like the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and the Venice Biennale Committee that we can achieve our goals.

So this project, bringing together as it does, two long standing partners to create a groundbreaking project in the field of visual Arts, represents, I think,  the best of what our work can achieve. 

Since the ‘First International Exhibition of Art’ in 1895 over a thousand artists have represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. The British Council has been responsible for the British presentation since 1937. During the mid-1960s it was decided to select only one artist or artist practice to show in the British Pavilion, and this has continued so far.

As it follows, the British Council has commissioned exhibitions by some of the UK's most significant artists, including: Lucian Freud, Anish Kapoor, Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili.

The British Council’s relationship with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe goes back almost as long beginning as it did in 1957, when Frank McEwen, cultural attaché at the British Council in Paris, was appointed to be the Director of the new institution, then called the National Gallery of Rhodesia.

The Directorship of Frank McEwen saw the National Gallery of Zimbabwe become a leading centre for contemporary African art in the 1960s, and his knowledge of European art has benefited the National Gallery up to the present day. 

In the 1980s sculptor Tapfuma Gutsa became the first Zimbabwean to be awarded a British Council Scholarship to study in London. Ten years later, one of Britain’s most renowned artists, Chris Ofili, was awarded a travel grant to Zimbabwe. This was a career-changing trip for the artist and it was while attending the Pachipamwe International Artists’ workshop in Zimbabwe that he first made use of animal dung – an important and infamous aspect of his practice.

A number of Zimbabwean arts practitioners have been the recipients in recent years of the British Council’s Chevening scholarships.  This illustrious list includes Farai Mupfunya Director of Culture Fund, Rumbi Katedza and indeed Mr Chikukwa, to mention but a few.

So why were we so particularly excited at the chance to bring Zimbabwean contemporary art to Venice? 

In conclusion, I would like to quote my colleague Andrea Rose, the commissioner of the British Pavilion at the Biennale.

Not only because it is the oldest; or because it is takes place
in such an extraordinary setting, where east meets west, ancient
meets modern, land meets sea; but because over the past hundred
years it has evolved into something of a miscellany, with an emphasis
on pluralism and inclusiveness rather than on exclusivity and single-
mindedness …

Showing at the Venice Biennale is a form of cultural coming of age.

2011 presents an outstanding opportunity to bring to this global market the work of Zimbabwe’s contemporary artists.  It will cast a spotlight on the creative communities not only of Zimbabwe, but of sub-Saharan African countries as a whole creating new opportunities and relationships into the future.