Have No Doubt of the Omnipotence of a Free People

Featuring 60+ artists, the exhibition places modernists and neo-avant-garde artists including Ion Bitzan, Geta Bratescu, Ion Grigorescu, Ana Lupas, Wanda Mihuleac and Mihai Olos, all central figures in Romanian art history, having defied the aesthetic and ideological regulations of the communist regime through deeply personal and experimental practices, in dialogue with Zimbabwean masters Thomas Mukarobgwa, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Sylvester Mubayi and Joseph Ndandarika, whose work emerged during the struggle for independence supported by Romania. Contemporary artists including Tapfuma Gutsa, Nona Inescu, Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Ciprian Mureșan, Terrence Musekiwa, Kresiah Mukwazhi, Gareth Nyandoro, Ștefan Sava, Șerban Savu, Felix Shumba, Mark Verlan and Portia Zvavahera revisit these intertwined legacies, asking what remains of the solidarities that once connected the socialist East and the decolonizing South.

Join us October 30 for the Opening of “Have No Doubt of the Omnipotence of a Free People,” the first exhibition to examine Romania’s role in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle during the 1970s, situating this overlooked history within the broader global processes of decolonization. The project brings together newly uncovered archival materials, first hand testimonials, original texts, and historical and contemporary artworks tracing how artistic production has reflected, and continues to reinterpret, the entanglements between post-communist and post-colonial realities.

The 67-artist Exhibition is a multi-generational dialogue between Romania and Zimbabwe. Their practices open a space for grappling with how history is remembered, repressed, or reactivated across time. The juxtaposition of historical and contemporary voices creates a polyphonic narrative in which ideological fervor, cultural production, and lived experience reverberate against one another.

The exhibition probes the cultural afterlives of political solidarity. It considers how artistic vocabularies reflect and contest state narratives, how cultural production serves as both propaganda and critique, and how contemporary artists are re-engaging these legacies in the present.

The Romania–Zimbabwe connection of the 1970s offers more than a bilateral story. It serves as a bridge for larger conversations on the entangled past, present, and potential futures of both nations, and by extension, the unfinished histories of decolonization and post-communist transformation. This shared moment of convergence allows Zimbabwean and Romanian artists to enter into dialogue across time, geography, and medium, revealing the multiplicity of perspectives that shape lived experience under the pressures of political ideology and global realignments.

The exhibition takes place across two locations - Galeria Catinca Tabacaru and POINT - in Bucharest, opening on October 30 and November 7 respectively. A Symposium taking place at POINT, November 20-22, will bring together critical curatorial, artistic, and academic voices examining the relationship between Eastern Europe and Africa within the historical and contemporary art context. A detailed program will be communicated in advance.