Permanent Shona Art Exhibitions :

Stone Sculptures 

Recycled metal objects

Contemporary art paintings

by great young artists

from Zimbabwe  

The Stone:

Terre Sauvage and Shayne Garde Girardin invite you to stroll through our garden of stone sculptures from Zimbabwe. Dzim dze Mabwe...great house of stone.  Zimbabweans have always sculpted stone.

This form of art, still rather unknown in France, was encouraged in the 1950s by Frank McEwen, the then curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He opened a sculpting garden-workshop near Harare, the Village of Tengenenge, where artists could, and still do, express their creativity, and transmit their savoir-faire to future generations of sculptors. McEwen described the artists' work as being 'the images that they carry in their souls'.

Almost 60 years later, this art has become known throughout the world, and we are very proud to have these sculptures in our garden too.

You will find pieces in springstone, cobalt stone, fruit serpentine, and green or lemon opalstone, sculpted by the loving hands of several up-and -coming artists, such as Alexander Chitungo, Tonderai and Lisborn Mashaya, or Alex Kambiri, whose stone hippos are a constant source of wonder.

The Paintings:

You will also discover in the house/gallery the excellent contemporary artworks of several young and very talented Zimbabwean artists. Works of great creativity, of energy and of hope, they express the contemporary thinking in Africa today and the suffering in Zimbabwe.

You will find works by Masimba Hwati, Virginia Chihota, Mishek Masamvu, Gilliam Rosselli, Tafadzwa Gwetai, Gareth Nyandoro, Admire Kamudzengerere, Anthony Bumhira and Shamilla Aasha.

The artists all collaborate with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and these works comes to the Dordogne after exhibition at the University of Avignon in March, as part of a student cultural project called 'Expressions of Africa'.

The Metal:

Zimbabweans are extremely talented people! They take old cars, old oil drums and metal waste and turn it into art, very good art. Recycled art. Superb herons, giraffes, warthogs, ducks, peacocks, robins and even an elephant all live in our garden.

 Villa des Courtissous, 24210 Saint Rabier (on your left as you leave the village, direction Hautefort)

Tel : 33 (0)553502720 or  33 (0)603008420

email: shayne@courtissous.com