Launching under the theme ‘Tomorrow there will be more of us’, the first installment of the Stellenbosch Triennale opens this coming week and runs until 30 April 2020. Conceived as a showcase for large-scale contemporary art exhibitions, the Stellenbosch Triennale is a non-commercial, multidisciplinary art platform hosting a range of artists from Africa and the diaspora.
Exhibitions are free of charge with many in venues within or close to traditionally under-resourced communities. The focus is on accessibility, development and the democratisation of art and its numerous benefits for all.
Stellenbosch Triennale Chief Curator Khanyisile Mbongwa. Image: Alena Gelen
The Triennale was curated by chief curator Khanyisile Mbongwa and Bernard Akoi-Jackson.
“African creatives confront us with what is possible for a renewal to happen utilising art as a lens, a course correction, a stimulus around curiosity and imagination. Through the Stellenbosch Triennale, we bring work from the continent to the southernmost tip as an intersection of time – where the past, present and future are in dialogue.”
– Khanyisile Mbongwa, Chief Curator
The Stellenbosch Triennale is the brainchild of the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust and it’s years of experience in enacting public art exhibitions in Stellenbosch. The Triennale takes public art in Stellenbosch to new heights in terms of it’s international reach, the scope and variety of the art to be showcased as well as it’s intention to place creativity in critical dialogue with society. The Triennale marks an intentional and purposeful attempt to use creativity, imagination and public space as a meeting point in engaging with the collective and distinctive milieu of our past, present and future existence and all it’s complexities- a place where we imagine futures.
The Stellenbosch Triennale is spread out amongst an impressive and diverse array of exhibitions. These include The Curator’s Exhibition (featuring a number of artists such as Bronwyn Katz, Donna Kukama, and Ighsaan Adams) and On the Cusp, a showcase of 10 young African artists including artists like Aaron Samuel Mulenga and Agnes Waruguru.
A full list of included artists can be found here.
The full Triennale programme can be found here.
Stellenbosch Triennale 2020 Programme Map
