Ujamma Art Collection is a project of Ania Valerio and Joachim Schmidt who want to share the treasure they discovered on Ibo Island and which survived not only the civil war but also the cyclone Kenneth with the help of the Ibo Island community. Fatima as a young artist and Joao as an economist started together to transform the artist community with Mozambican artist like Naguibe and Malangatana.
Joao started to take lessons in stone sculpture in Johannesburg and they both started together to make exhibitions in cooperation with Berry from Zimbabwe. With the end of the civil war in 1991/92 they decided to make a unition culture and invited young Mozambican artists and international artists to join unique way of inspiration work in Wimby Beach Pemba. Both of them having a house in Ibo Island Quirimbas Archipelago Mozambique, they found how inspirational it could be to paint in such a remote place without electricity, technology, only with artists and nature trying to bring the purest art that they could imagine to a paper, a piece of wood or what they found. This was what we found out, that the art collection is a unique love of art, love of colour can bring. The colour of the sea, the sand, the voices of the island people, Ibo Island and the surrounding had a big impact on the paintings. It was an intense time, inspired by different people and cultures, being free and feeling the freedom of art. The discovery of the collection had the beginning in another love story, beginning with a German man going to Quirimbas Island being inspired by a newspaper article about a German having a coconut plantation and a local medical station. He decided to fill up his backpack with medicine and take his way to North Mozambique to go diving and deliver his medical surprise. At the same time, the youngest daughter of Joao Vieira went to Ibo Island with her father to visit her grandparents and have a look at their house in Ibo. From the destiny they both found each other and after two years of a long-distance relationship unfortunately Joao Vieira died of cancer on 1. August 2016 leaving the youngest daughter the house in Ibo Island, where she was born. Only after three years on 14th April 2019 when we had the chance to go to Ibo Island and have a look at all the things in the house, a cyclone was coming. After the cyclone devastated north Mozambique, we decided to go back to Ibo Island to rehabilitate the colonial house. And then we came to the idea of bringing to life all these pieces of art with all their own background and story to show the remarkable collection what artists can do in our country living through a civil war from 1977 to 1992. Our goal since all this started in Cabo Delgado and my wife is from Ibo Island, we came with an idea of exposing these paintings to Germany and the world to show people the contemporary African art and use the help to support children in the island of Ibo Island. Helping them with the cultural meaning of art, music, dance, everything which would improve their understanding of freedom. Magnificent artists started in Ibo Island which shows it doesn’t matter what material you have; you can create art out of everything. We want to show the love we had found in that colonial house, full of dust, destroyed by the nature, that it doesn’t matter how worse condition can be. The collection was created during the war in Mozambique and somehow all these pieces of art survived not only more than 30 years on this remote island but also with the help of friends on Ibo Island the cyclone in 2019. Since the destabilization in north Mozambique we managed with the help of locals to bring the whole collection in summer 2020 to Germany and started to restore the collection piece by piece. We want to use this profile here to share step by step the collection and share our thoughts, ideas for upcoming projects on Ibo Island and give all residents and friends of Ibo Island hope that one day we can expose the whole collection in Ibo and share it with all visitors. Stay with us, share your comments and knowledge about the paintings or artists and help us rebuild Ibo’s future. Ania & Joachim
