Sethembile MSEZANE
(KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, 1991)
Sethembile Msezane è nata nel 1991 a KwaZulu Natal, in Sudafrica. Vive e lavora a Città del Capo, in Sudafrica. Ha conseguito un Master in Belle Arti nel 2017 presso la Michaelis School of Fine Art dell'Università di Città del Capo, dove ha anche completato il Bachelor of Fine Arts nel 2012.
Utilizza una pratica interdisciplinare che comprende fotografia, pittura, opere/emblemi dal vivo, film, scultura e installazione. Msezane crea opere imponenti e ricche di simbolismo spirituale e politico. L'artista esplora temi legati alla spiritualità, alla commemorazione e ai sistemi di conoscenza africani. Elabora i suoi sogni come mezzo di comunicazione attraverso la lente della pluralità dell'esistenza attraverso lo spazio e il tempo, ponendo domande sulla memoria ancestrale.
Con parte del suo lavoro, l’artista ha esaminato i processi di creazione del mito che vengono utilizzati per costruire la storia, richiamando l'attenzione sull'assenza del corpo femminile nero sia nelle narrazioni che negli spazi fisici della commemorazione storica.
Msezane ha partecipato alla mostra Acts of Empathy- Deep Blue nell'ambito della 3a Bienal Fotografia do Porto, Porto, Portogallo, ha partecipato alla 13a Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography (2022), ha completato una residenza presso la Central Saint Martins di Londra (2022), ha partecipato alla 14a Dak'art Biennale (2022), è stata UEA Global Talent Fellow ospitata dalla Sainsbury Research Unit e dal Sainsbury Centre (2021). È stata Mellon Artist Residency Fellow in collaborazione con la Gallery dell'Università di Stellenbosch e il Dipartimento di Inglese (2020), è candidata al National Institute for Human Social Sciences Award (2020), OkayAfrica 100 women 2018 Honoree. Msezane è stata relatrice di TEDGlobal ad Arusha, Tanzania (2017). È stata vincitrice del TAF & Sylt Emerging Artist Residency Award (TASA) (2016). Msezane è la prima destinataria del premio Rising Light ai Mbokodo Awards (2016). È una finalista della Top 10 di Barclays L'Atelier (2016). È vincitrice del Sasol New Signatures Merit Award (2015).
Il lavoro di Msezane è stato ampiamente esposto in Sudafrica e a livello internazionale ed è stato incluso in varie mostre e musei, tra cui la 14a Biennale d'arte di Dak'art, il Zeitz MOCAA (Città del Capo), nonché la Iziko South African National Gallery (Città del Capo), il Royal Ontario Museum (Canada), il Museo Oscar Niemeyer (Brasile) e altri ancora.
Nel 2019 ha messo in scena Signal Her Return III al New Art Exchange di Nottingham. Nel 2018 ha messo in scena una performance per l'ICA Arts Live Festival di Città del Capo, oltre a esibirsi al National Museum of Denmark di Copenaghen, nell'ambito della conferenza Changing Global Hierarchies of Value?Museums, artifacts, frames, and flows, organizzata in collaborazione con l'Università di Copenhagen. Si è inoltre esibita a dOCUMENTA 14 nel 2017 sia ad Atene, in Grecia, che a Kassel, in Germania, come parte di iQhiya Collective. Ha partecipato a residenze tra cui la Sylt Foundation, Emerging Artist Residency, Sylt e Künstlerhuser Worpswede, Germania (2017), e la Situate Arts Lab Residency, Hobart, Australia (2016).
PERSONALI SELEZIONATE
2023
Liguqubele iZulu, BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Speaking Through Walls, Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, 13th Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
UkuKhanya,, Ĩ Ndaffa#, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
2021
Nibizwa Ngabangcwele, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK
Isimo, Online Exhibition, Gus Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2019
Speaking Through Walls, Tyburn Gallery, London
2018 Unframed, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
All Things Being Equal, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
Umoya: A Quiet Revolution, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Kwasuka Sukela, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa
COLLETTIVE SELEZIONATE
2024
Where Thou Art - That - is Home, Osart Gallery, Milan, Italy
The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2024 Exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2023
Unruly Kinship, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany Abadali, Rosebank Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Speaking Through Walls, Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, 13th Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
UkuKhanya,, Ĩ Ndaffa#, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
And She Was Wearing Trousers: A Call to Out Heroines, Arts House, Melbourne, Australia
2021
The Commons and Commoning- Video Art and Experimental Film Event (VAEFE), SEA Foundation, Netherlands
Africa Writes, Royal African Society, British Library, London, UK Creative Climate Awards, The Human Impacts Institute, US Dwala Lam’, Center for Human Rights and the Arts online, US
2020
Propositions for Alternative Narratives, Photoworks Festival, Brighton, UK ARCOLisboa online edition, Movart, Lisbon, Portugal
Now Look Here, The African Art of Appearance, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ĩ’NDAFFA, Forger/Out of the fire’, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, SenegaL
African Cosmologies, Fotofest Biennial, Houston, USA
Tomorrow there Will be More of Us, Stellenbosch Triennale. Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Smith Gallery. Cape Town. South Africa
2019
14th Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Brazil
Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
N’Golà, VIII Biennia of Arts and Culture, São Tomé e Príncipe
Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Tyburn Gallery. Cape Town. South Africa
Lagos Photo, Lagos, Nigeria
2018
Cape to Tehran, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa
Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
1:54 Contemporary Art Fair, London, United Kingdom
2017
1:54 Contemporary Art Fair, London, United Kingdom
Falling, De Gameente, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dress Code, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa
What Do They Call Me, Gallery MoMo, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
iQhiya, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
2016
Re[as]sisting Narratives, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Women’s Work, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
The Art of Disruptions, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa #TheOpening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa
Dance, if you want to enter my country! / Global Citizen, GoetheOnMain, Johannesburg, South Africa
Nothing Personal, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
iQhiya, The AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Translations, Emergent Art Space, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, USA
2014
Anywhere the Wind Blows, Brundyn + exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
Camouflage, Circa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
MOP5 festival, Lovell Gallery, CT Mistakes exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
CMYK, Circa Gallery, JHB Manifestations of Self, YoungBlood, Cape Town, South Africa
Michaelis School of Fine Art Graduate’s exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
PERFORMANCE SELEZIONATE
2022
Let the Emerald Village Carry Me, Lethaby Gallery, England
2019
Signal Her Return III, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (UK)
2018 Signal Her Return III, ICA Live Art Festival, Cape Town (CT)
Excerpts from the Past, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
2017
Excerpts from the Past, ICA Live Art Festival, Cape Town, South Africa; National Arts Festival, South Africa; Arts House, Melbourne, Australia; and Spiel Art Festival Munich, Germany
The Portrait, dOCUMENTA 14, Athens, Greece (as part of iQhiya collective)
Monday, dOCUMENTA 14, Kassel, Germany (as part of iQhiya collective)
2016
Azania - What will be Remembered What will be Forgotten? Gipca, Cape Town, South Africa Excerpts from the Past, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Chapungu - The Day Rhodes Fell, Cape Town, South Africa. Chapungu - The Return to Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
Love in the Time of Afrophobia at VryfeesKunstefees and AVA Open Stoep Residency, Cape Town, South Africa
Ellipsis at Infecting the City, Cape Town, South Africa
Krotoa at Grid Biennial Cape Town, Art Meets Camera, Cape Town, South Africa
RESIDENZE
2022
Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London, London, United Kingdom
2021
UEA Global Talent Fellow hosted by the Sainsbury Research Unit and Sainsbury Centre, United Kingdom
2020
Mellon Artist Residency Fellow, Gallery University Stellenbosch and the Department of English Studies, South Africa
2017
Nirox Foundation, Krugersdorp, South Africa
Sylt Foundation, Sylt Island, Germany
Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany
2016
Situate Arts Lab, Hobart, Australia. 2014 OPENLab, Bloemfontein, South Africa
PREMI E RICONOSCIMENTI
2023
Shortlisted for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize
2021
UEA Global Talent Fellow hosted by the Sainsbury Research Unit and Sainsbury Centre, United Kingdom
Creative Climate Award Winner, New York, America
Visionary Award Finalist, Javett,-UP, Pretoria, South Africa
2020
Mellon Artist Residency Fellow, Gallery University Stellenbosch and the Department of English Studies, South Africa
The National Institute for Human Social Sciences Award nominee
2018
OkayAfrica 100 Women honoree
2017
Nominee: ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Kuopio, Finland
2016
Rising Light Award, Mbokodo Awards
TAF & Sylt Emerging Artist Residency Award, South Africa, Germany
Top 10 finalist: Barclays L’Atelier Competition
2015
Sasol New Signatures Merit Award
Finalist: Barclays L’Atelier
2013
Project Assistant for the Cape Town Art Fair (2013- 2014)
2014
Open Lab candidate, a residency program investigating performance and space
2012
First year mentor for Fine Art students, advised and assisted on projects as well as provided moral support
Travel Scholarship to dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel Germany
SA Centre for Photography representative