Stellenbosch Triennale

‘Concepts of Freedom’ - Video Art Exhibition

Artists Dossier

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Awuor Onyango

Country of origin: Kenya

Biography of artist: Awuor Onyango is a writer and multidisciplinary artist, based in the pagan citadel of Nairobi, somewhat trained in English & French laws (Dip), Fine Art & Film

(disc). Her practice is concerned with (re)claiming public space erased/appropriated and or disallowed to people considered black, femme and other, whether the space is intellectual, physical, in memory or historical. Through writing, design, photography,

(experimental) film and fine art she explores issues of access, transgression, shame and discomfort of the (continental) black femme. Her multidisciplinary approach is rooted in the ephemeral, interactive and lived art traditions of East Africa, in which the seeking is supreme and the art object merely evidence of the seeking.

Bonolo Kavula

Country of origin: South Africa

Artist biography: Born 1992 in Kimberley, South Africa Bonolo Kavula works and lives in

Cape Town, South Africa. She obtained a BA(FA) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art

(University of Cape Town) majoring in Printmaking in 2014. Kavula works in print media, video work, comic art as well as painting and has recently used performance art as a new artistic expression by creating an art persona called Black Mona Lisa. Black Mona Lisa debuted her music video titled, Messy, which was featured in the Zeitz MOCAA exhibition

'The Main Complaint' in 2018. Her main artistic practise is centred around printmaking and makes use of found materials and non-conventional installation modes to challenge the traditions of Printmaking. Kavula has also recently lent her voice to stand-up comedy to critique the art world through humour. Her first stand-up routine was held at Blank Projects in August 2018.

Lebohang Kganye

Country of origin: South Africa

Artist biography: Lebohang Kganye is an artist living and working in Johannesburg. Kganye received her introduction to photography at the Market Photo Workshop, in Johannesburg in 2009 and completed the Advanced Photography Programme in 2011. She studied Fine

Arts at the University of Johannesburg and is currently doing her Masters in Fine Arts at the

Witwatersrand University. Kganye forms a new generation of contemporary South African photographers, although primarily a photographer, Kganye’s photography often incorporates her interest in sculpture and performance. Over the past seven years she has participated in photography masterclasses and group exhibitions locally and internationally. Kganye was the recipient of the Tierney Fellowship Award in 2012, leading to her solo exhibition Ke Lefa Laka. She created an animation from the series, which was launched on Mandela Day 2014 in Scotland, entitled Pied Piper’s Voyage. She was also awarded the Jury Prize at the Bamako Encounters of African Photography in 2015 and was the recipient of the CAP Prize 2016 in Basel. Kganye recently received the coveted award for the Sasol New Signatures Competition 2017, leading to a solo show in 2018.

Kganye’s work forms part of several private and public collections, most notably the

Carnegie Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Walther Collection in Ulm.

Malibongwe Tyilo

Country of origin: South Africa

Artist biography: Malibongwe Tyilo is a multimedia journalist and editor whose expertise lies in the fields of fashion, art, design and culture. All of which are subjects he has explored on his own online platforms, and as a columnist for various leading South African magazines and newspapers. Malibongwe is currently focused on producing video content for various partners, focusing specifically on the growth of South Africa’s design industry, product design, as well as his role as Associate Editor for Maverick Life, the Daily Maverick's recently launched online Life and culture Magazine. He has a particular interest in documenting and writing about the evolution of creative communities and industries with within the South

African context.

Rahema Chachage

Country of origin: Tanzania

Artist biography: Rehema Chachage’s practice can be viewed as a performative archive which untraditionally collects stories, rituals and other oral traditions in different media; performance, photography, video, text as well as physical installations which trace hi/stories directly tied to women in the Swahili region; and which employ written texts, oral and aural stories, melodies, and relics from several re-enacted/performed rituals as source of research. She has a BA in Fine Art (2009) from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of

Cape Town; and an MA Contemporary Art Theory (2018) from Goldsmiths, University of

London. Currently she is doing her PhD in practice with the Academy of Fine Art in with her research focusing on the archive and its methodologies, specifically looking at ways of doing the archive differently through one’s practice as an artist.

Fokin Bois

Country of Origin: Ghana

Quirky creatives FOKN Bois, aka M3NSA and Wanlov the Kubolor, who gave the world the first Pidgen Musical, “Coz Ov Moni” (Because Of Money) and it’s sequel “FOKN Revenge”, are the most celebrated band in the world due to their most unconventional way of entertaining with ingeniously tasteful shock lyrics, revolutionary performance art, & indulgent progressive sonics. Though both excellent lyricists, M3NSA leans more towards music production and Wanlov the Kubolor is more into visuals. Their live setup boasts of an additional member Andras Weil who plays keys and directs their live performances. The grand yet undeniable misnomer, Afrobeats, never sat well with the FOKN Bois.

The FOKN Bois decided to put a spin on things and now we are laughing with them on their new 7-Track EP “Afrobeats LOL”. “Our new EP is a collaboration with the emergent Hiplife scene like Mr Eazi, Medikal, Sister Deborah, Dex Kwasi, King Stunn, and also high-life icon

Gyedu Blay Ambolley” FOKN Bois are often inadequately compared to duos like Outkast,

Flight of the Conchords and Run The Jewels, but many now know to expect anything and everything more from this raw, witty braggadocious and eccentric band.

Tabita Rezaire

Country of origin: France

Artist biography: Tabita Rezaire is infinity incarnated into an agent of healing, who uses art as a means to unfold the soul. Her cross-dimensional practices envision network sciences - organic, electronic and spiritual - as healing technologies to serve the shift towards heart consciousness. Navigating digital, corporeal and ancestral memory as sites of struggles, she digs into scientific imaginaries to tackle the pervasive matrix of coloniality and the protocols of energetic misalignments that affect the songs of our body-mind-spirits.

Inspired by quantum and cosmic mechanics, Tabita’s work is rooted in time-spaces where technology and spirituality intersect as fertile ground to nourish visions of connection and emancipation. Through screen interfaces and collective offerings, she reminds us to access our inner data centres and bypass western authority to download directly from soul.

Tabita is based in Cayenne, French Guyana. She has a Bachelor in Economics (Fr) and a

Master of Research in Artist Moving Image from Central Saint Martins (UK). Tabita is a

founding member of the artist group NTU, half of the duo Malaxa, and the mother of the energy house SENEB.

Tabita has shown her work internationally – Serpentine London; MoMa NY; New Museum

NY; Gropius Bau ; MMOMA Moscow, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; HEK

Basel; ICA London; V&A London; National Gallery Denmark; The Broad LA; MoCADA NY;

Tate Modern London; Paris – and contributed to several such as the Guangzhou Triennial, Athens Biennale, Kochi Biennale in 2018, Performa and

Karachi Biennale in 2017 and Berlin Biennale in 2016.