BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: History’s Footnot

Géraldine Tobe

In History’s Footnote: on Love and Freedom 11 international artists from Afrika to Alaska unravel traumas of racial, gender, sexual, and cultural injustices. This group exhibition by the South-African curator Khanyisile Mbongwa connects the stories of film makers, visual artists, singers and poets about decolonization, lost language, collective protest and forgotten history. A central theme in the exhibition is the quest for love and freedom to which history serves as a footnote.

‘Without freedom, no love is possible,’ says Mbongwa, ‘and without love there is no freedom.’ History’s Footnote gives space to the forgotten stories and offers sight to the emancipation and awareness necessary for the creation of a better future.

Artists
Felipe Castelblanco, Nicholas Galanin, Lungiswa Gqunta, Noncedo Gxekwa, Hymn_self, Janaú, Eric Magassa, Nástio Mosquito, Géraldine Tobe, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Euridice Zaituna Kala.

Eric Magassa - The Lost Faugeres

Khanyisile Mbongwa is a Cape Town based independent curator, award winning artist and sociologist. She works with public space in which interdisciplinary and performative practices unpack complexities such as the socio-political, economic, racial and gender-queer nuances of the everyday. Mbongwa uses creativity to instigate spaces for emancipatory practices, joy and play. In the past, she has worked with Norval Foundation as Adjunct Curator for performative practices, Cape Town Carnival as curatorial and social development advisor and was the Chief Curator of the Stellenbosch Triennale 2020.

Series
This exhibition is part of a series of Marres explorations of history and injustice. Previous projects in this series were: The Unwritten (2014) and The Measure of Our Travelling Feet (2016).

https://marres.org