Project Update: South African Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2026

It is with deep disappointment that we confirm that the proposed South African Pavilion for the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2026) will not proceed.

In this episode, Refiloe Mpakanyane speaks to Carla and Pieter Schulting, Dutch collectors whose journey into contemporary African art has grown into a 350+ artwork collection representing all 54 countries on the continent.

By nature, the movement of artworks between borders is one of uncertainty within rigid structure. Shipping of artworks internationally involves months of planning, applications through government organisations, piles of paperwork, double and triple checking codes and values, negotiation, bureaucracy, high costs for transit and customs fees, and dozens of hands and minds.

Black performance is impossible not because it doesn't exist, but because it exists otherwise — fugitively, excessively, in the break.

Our Head of Content, Chelsea Selvan, sat down with Japan-based curator and collector Dexter Wimberly to discuss The Shape of Things to Come — his Dubai exhibition bringing together African and diasporic artists exploring transformation, resilience, and renewal.

The accessibility of art has been a perennial topic of discussion in art circles. While art galleries and museums are theoretically open to all, social, economic, educational, cultural, class, and racial barriers often complicate access in practice.

Earlier this year, Latitudes and Thrive Student Living teamed up to spotlight the next generation of creative talent. Meet the winners!

On this episode of the Latitudes Podcast, Refiloe Mpakanyane is joined by Justin Naylor and Carol Nolte. Justin is the CEO of iTOO Artinsure (primary sponsors of the Latitudes Podcast) and Carel is the Chief Enablement Officer of Easy Equities. Both are ardent wine and art collectors whose interests have blended with their work as well.

Entrepreneurs, over the age of 18, within the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI), resident in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi are invited to apply to participate in an intensive mentorship programme starting in February 2026. From the applications, 50 entrepreneurs will be selected to take part in a 7-week intensive mentorship programme, which aims to equip them with tools, guidance, and expertise necessary to refine their business models.

South Africa is preparing to take the global stage once again. Art Periodic South Africa (A°P), in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) and with Latitudes Online as Strategic and Media Partner, is proud to unveil the governance framework for the South African Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2026).

Emma van der Merwe, Director of Everard Read Gallery Cape Town, joins Refiloe Mpakanyane to talk about the quiet contracts that hold the art world together — trust, instinct, and love for the work itself. In this conversation, she lifts the curtain on the energy and potential driving South Africa’s art scene, reflecting on the delicate balance between representing artists and believing in their long game — with buoyancy at the heart of it all.

Faith is nurtured and strengthened by shared practice, repeated gestures and communal bonds. The artworks shown here invite viewers to consider how belief shapes identity and how a sense of oneness grows when individuals search for meaning together. This exhibition aims to encourage us to focus on our shared human need for connection and fullness rather than the differences that exist across beliefs.

This exhibition explores fragments of home, the spaces and conditions that shape us, through the intertwined themes of memory, freedom, and identity. Home here is not confined to walls; it is emotional, mental, and spiritual. It is a place that shapes and mirrors who we are, even when fractured by inequality and displacement.

Conflict and war shape our experiences and definitions socially, and art is no different. Most artists from conflict-affected regions find their work defined by these circumstances, whether they embrace or resist this lens. Since April 2023, many Sudanese art exhibitions have been framed politically or nostalgically, but as a curator, I ask: who is thinking of the art itself? How does the environment affect visual memory and artistic production?

What happens in the space between certainty and the unknown? Between who we were and who we are becoming? In the Between: States of Becoming is a contemporary art exhibition exploring the psychological and emotional terrain of transition moments suspended between stability and chaos, clarity and confusion. The exhibition presents a raw and resonant look at the human condition through the lens of mental health, focusing on the invisible yet transformative process of change.