1972 is a 16-piece performance-based photographic work. The images present R. and A. living in Harare in 1972. At the time, marriage between black and white was virtually impossible and there were political attempts to make it illegal. 1972 was also the beginning of a 7-year long guerilla war between nationalists and the Rhodesian security forces.
Rachel Monosov and Admire Kamudzengerere created real life events as happenings in Zimbabwe. They threw a wedding, inviting the local community to witness the event. They placed themselves into different spaces creating convincing settings: from leisurely afternoons by the lake, to constructing their first home. The work is documentary photography infused with fiction. It all happened, yet never was.
The undocumented acts, reactions and effects, which lie beyond these photographs, are as much a part of the work as the images themselves. The happenings were entire “real-life” events. The artists did not stage a pose holding a goat for the camera. Instead, the image captured is a documentation of Kamudzengerere presenting Monosov with a dowry. The work is a merger between the artists’ lives and their art practice – to research the cultural boundaries and structures imposed upon them.

Opening reception: Friday, March 16, 2018 | 6-8PM

mpefm USA art press release