Rehema Chachage

b.1987, Dar es Salaam

Rehema Chachage has a research-driven, process-based practice characterized by a diverse range of media and methods. Grounded in generational knowledge, memory, and alternative storytelling methodologies, her work integrates performance, photography, video, olfactory, voice, text, and installation to create immersive, multisensory installations which engage visuality, sound, and scent. Central to her practice is an exploration of matrilineal family memory, developed in collaboration with her mother and grandmother. Together, they create a “performative archive” that weaves memory, stories, songs, rituals, and oral traditions into an open, ongoing process—akin to an open weave—with the body functioning as both a site and medium for historical knowledge production. Through collective, polyphonic engagements, Chachage maps histories, spaces, and embodied narratives, offering alternative methodologies for engaging with the past and refusing erasure.

Chachage holds a BA in Fine Art (2009) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory (2018) from Goldsmiths, University of London. She finalizing her PhD in Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Her work has been exhibited widely in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She has been shortlisted for the Henrike Grohs Art Award (2020), the Vordemberge-Gildewart Award (2022), and the Belvedere Art Award (2024); and she is a recipient of the LIVE WORKS Performance Act Award (2019) and the H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance (2023).