Description

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Albie SACHS (born 1935), Author of Texts. Carlos SILVA; David KING (1943–2016), Designer; José FREIRE; Luísa GUIMARÃES FREIRE; Sol CARVALHO; Susan MEISELAS (wrongly written Maiselas) (Magnum Photos, born 1948) – Moira FORJAZ (born 1942), Photographers.

Maputo: Partido Frelima 1984.

Following the Mozambican War of Independence (1964-1975), large murals began to appear on city walls, reflecting the nation’s struggle for freedom and the strong communist propaganda of the new regime.

The first phase of the murals was created spontaneously by local inhabitants to express their emotions and frustrations. This was soon followed by a second phase, which involved a governmental commission for planned images. Professional artists, often collaborating with local residents, painted these murals on the walls of public buildings. The government viewed the graffiti as a medium to convey powerful messages about the country’s new regime.

Alongside Mozambique, this monumental public art has also reached its heights in Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, and Angola.

The current publication showcases the most renowned public murals from the post-revolutionary era in Maputo, created by various local artists. This book is the result of international collaboration.

The drafter of the book was David King (1943–2016), a famous British designer of mostly books and magazines, an activist and a prolific collector of Soviet-era designs, now owed by Tate gallery.

The text was written by Albie Sachs, a South African lawyer, activist, and writer born in 1935. He relocated to the newly independent Mozambique in 1977, where he served as a law professor at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. The photographs featured in the text were taken by Susan Meiselas, born in 1948, a member of Magnum Photos and currently the President of the Magnum Foundation, and Moira Forjaz, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1942.

An English version with the title Images of a Revolution was published in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1983.

We could trace examples in the following institutions on Worldcat: Biblioteca de Arte – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Kunsthaus Zürich Bibliothek, Universitätsbibliothek J. C. Senckenberg, Médiathèque du musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, State University of New York – Binghamton University Libraries, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin – Madison General Library System, University of the Witwatersrand Library and Getty Research Institute.

References: OCLC 959171222, 33988531. Cf.: Albie Sachs – Sol Carvalho, The Revolutionary Murals 19860100_revolutionary_murals.pdf