“I can’t take you home with me. Home is a place in time. I’m not from here. I’m not from anywhere” - Safia Elhillo
‘Translating Home’ is an online exhibition of artworks produced by artists from Southern Africa and France. The concept of home is imperative in the construction of identity, and the further understanding of the ‘self’. Without origin, one is left with the haunting existential questions, namely being: ‘Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?”. In the traditional sense, the home is defined as a permanent space where one resides, in other words – the notion of home is tethered to a singular space or location. This raises the question for those who fall outside of the permanence of this four-lettered word. On the peripheries of the comforting stability, we find the voyagers, the nomads and the vagabonds who are simultaneously from everywhere and nowhere. In the wake of their pilgrimage, there is only one definitive location to find home: inwards. Reflecting on the internal intimacy of a home which transcends borders, time and even language, we are prepared for a journey where the external surroundings will be turned into spaces that belong to us, and us to them. Here we will transform a fleeting moment into a memory - where yesterday has cast us away, where tomorrow resides in the territory of the unknown, but where today is undoubtably ours.
- Bontle Tau (exhibition curator and nomad)
Artwork above: Bongani Tshabalala, presented by Bontle Tau, Sense of belonging, 2020, Digital Photograph on Coldpress paper, Edition 1 of 5 (2AP) 29.7 cm x 42 cm (framed), R5,525 ex. VAT
Assaf Shoshan, Yohannes, 2017, Archive Colour Print Edition 2 of 5 80 cm x 64 cm, €4,000
Bontle Tau is a visual artist, writer and independant curator based in Bloemfontein, Free State. Her practice includes the exploration of identity through the displacement of culture and language. As an artist, Tau has exhibited in group shows at Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Turbine Art Fair and Galerié L'app'Art in Périgeux, France. Her written work has been included in publications by the Southern African Foundation For Contemporary Art and CityLifeArts. Tau has also recently published a chapter with Oxford University. As a curator, she believes in the agency of art and its inifnite ablitiy to cross social boundaries, creating opportunities for reflection and conversation.
Janine Allen, Carpet and Corrugated Iron, 2021, Analogue Holga Photograph Dimensions Variable, R6,500 ex. VAT
Alka Dass, Nothing moves, but the shifting tides of salt in your body, 2020, Digital Print, 14 x 14 cm, Edition of 4, R1,100 ex. VAT
302 x 571 cm | 118 7/8 x 224 13/16 in.
© Gilbert & George. Courtesy White Cube
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