Santu Mofokeng
CV
CV
Biography
Born 1956 in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Grants & Awards
2016
Honorary Doctorate, WITS University, Johannesburg, South Africa
International Photography Prize, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Italy
2009
Prince Claus Lauriat, Netherlands
2007
Ruth First Fellowship, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
2001
DAAD Fellowship, Berlin, Germany
1999
DAAD Fellowship, Worpswede, Germany
Contre Jour Residency, Marseille, France
1998
Künstlerhaus Worpswede Fellowship, Germany
1997
Short-listed for the FNB Vita Award for the Visual Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
1992
1st Mother Jones Award for Africa, South Africa
1991
Ernest Cole Scholarship, for study at the International Center of Photography, New York City, USA
1990
AA Vita Award Nomination for Like Shifting Sand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Santu Mofokeng: Billboards, Zander Galerie, Cologne, Germany
2022
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kunsthaus Göttingen, Germany
2021 – 2022
Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt: Beyond the Binary, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany
2019
Santu Mofokeng: Stories, Foam Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands
2018
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kliptown Community Centre, Soweto, South Africa
2016
Santu Mofokeng. A Silent Solitude. Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena Foro Boario, Italy
2015
Santu Mofokeng: A Metaphorical Biography, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York Chelsea, New York, USA
2012
Chasing Shadows/Santu Mofokeng, thirty years of photographic essays, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011
Chasing Shadows, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp, Belgium; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
2010
Let's Talk, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
Remaining Past, Minshar Art Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel
Chasing Shadows, Anne Arbor Institute of Humanities, Michigan, USA
2009
Mofokeng survey exhibition, Autograph ABP, London, UK
2008
Santu Mofokeng's Landscapes, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Homeland Security, Johannesburg Art Museum, South Africa
2007
Invoice, Standard Bank Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
Invoice Iziko, South African National Art Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
Rethinking Landscape, Centre photographique d'Ile-de-France (CPIF), Pontault-Combault, France
Santu Mofokeng, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng, David Krut Projects, New York City, USA
2003
Chasing Shadows, Memling Museum, Bruges, Belgium
2000
Sad Landscapes, Camouflage Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Chasing Shadows, Transparencies International, Berlin, Germany
1999
Black Photo Album/Look at Me, FNAC Montparnasse, France
1998
Lunarscapes, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Chasing Shadows, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Black Photo Album/Look at Me, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1997
Chasing Shadows, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
1995
Distorting Mirror/Townships Imagined, Worker's Library, Johannesburg, South Africa
1994
Rumours/The Bloemhof Portfolio, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
1990
Like Shifting Sand, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Group Exhibitions
2024
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, Niederlande
2023 – 2024
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate Modern, London,UK
2023
Santu Mofokeng & David Goldblatt: Beyond The Binary, The Walter Collection, Neu- Ulm, Germany
Trace - Formations of Likeness. Photography and Video from The Walther Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2022 – 2023
Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & Subterranean Imaginary, Nottingham Contemporary, UK
2022
Africa. The Ecstatic Religions, Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, Daoulas, France
The Show is Over, South London Gallery, UK
2021
Handle With Care, Javett-UP Pretoria, South Africa
2020 – 2021
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and Other, Fotofest Biennal, Houston, USA
2020
Who is gazing?, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
2019
Apologia della Storia – The Historian's Craft, ICA Milano, Milan, Italy
2018 – 2019
Crossing Night, Idris Niam Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico
Afrique. Les religions de l’extase, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, Switzerland
2018
Days without a Night, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, India
The Kochi-Musiris Biennale 2018, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
Image profile: Aspects of the Documentary in MMK's Photography Collection MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt – ZOLLAMT, Frankfurt, Germany
2017 – 2018
Space and Photography, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg Salzburg, Austria
2017
Behold The Man, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen Magdeburg Magdeburg, Germany
Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France
The Extended Moment, Carlier | Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
2016 – 2017
The force of photography. Works from the Museion Collection, Museion, Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Bolzano, Italy
25 years: MMK Museum of Modern Art, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Germany
2016
Festival Internacional de Fotografia, SCAN, Tarragona
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
Home Truths, IZIKO South African National Gallery, South Africa
Dubai Photo 2016 Exhibition, Dubai
South Africa, The British Museum, London, UK
2015 – 2016
Après Eden: The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
2015
Álbum de Família, Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Between States of Emergency, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015 – 2016
The Problem of God, K21-Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany
2015
Looking Back/Looking Forward, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa, Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA
Après Eden: The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Formes Biographiques, Carré d'Art, Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes, France
2014 – 2015
INPUT / OUTPUT - Interface Worpswede, Worpswede Museen, Germany
2014
Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille Museum door Fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
SITE: Photography and National Trauma in South Africa, GUS University Stellenbosch Art Gallery, South Africa
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Fowler Museum at UCLA Los Angeles, California, USA
Contemporary Art/South Africa, Yale University Art Gallery New Haven, USA
2013 – 2014
Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, International Centre of Photography, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Museum Africa, Johannesburg
Biographical Forms - Construction and Individual Mythology, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA
2013
German Pavilion, 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
African Photography from The Walther Collection Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive The Walter Collection, Ulm, Germany
Umhlaba Wethu This is Our Land: 100 year commemoration of the 1913 Land Act, South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Centre Pompidou – Cinema 2, Paris, France
African Photography from East, West and South Africa, The National Gallery of Nyanza, Rwanda
My Joburg: Short Change, a photography exhibition of work by students and alumni of the Market Photo Workshop, La Maison Rouge, Paris
2012 – 2013
Household Narratives. Beyond the Family Album, Diputación de Huesca, Spain
Poetry and Dream Collection Display, Tate Modern, London, UK
2011
Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Events of the Self Portraiture and Social Identity, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
(Re)construções: Arte Contemporânea de África do Sul, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Brasil
2010
Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA
Animism, Extra City/M HKA, Antwerp; Kunsthalle Bern; Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria
Apartheid - Widerstand - Freiheit: Südafrikanische Fotografie 1950-2010. Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany
2009
The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame, T.IC.A.B. - Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual, Albania
Imaginar_historiar, XVI Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen, Madrid, Spain
Joburg Art Fair, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Urban Reflections, Stills Scotland's Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, UK
2008
Home Lands - Land Marks: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Rationalism of Nationalism, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Climate Change, Ruth First Fellowship Award Conference, Atlas Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Centre de Cultura, Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain
Uniform: South Africa’s New Clothes, Spanierman Modern, New York, USA
Reality Check: Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bochum; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz; Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Exorcising Exoticism, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan
1st Trienal de Luanda, Angola
Black, Brown+ White, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
2005 – 2006
Unsettled, Durban Art Callery; Reykjavik Museum of Photography; Kristianstads Konsthall, Sweden; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
2005
10 Years, 100 Artists: Art in Democratic South Africa, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
Post! Contemporary South African Photography, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Forbidden City International Photography Exhibition, Beijing, China
New Identities: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museum Bochum, Germany; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa
Ralentir vite, le Plateau/Frac Ile-de-France, Paris, France
Photography from South Africa, Christine Koenig Galerie, Vienna, Austria
2004 – 2007
Afrika Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2003
5th Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
6th Sharjah International Biennal, UAE
2002
documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brasil
African Advertising Art, Iwalewa House, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Surviving Apartheid, Maison Europeene de la Photographie, Paris, France
Dislocation: Installations from South Africa, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
2001
The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany; Haus der Kulturen der Welt/Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; MoMA PSI, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA
Africas: The Artist and the City, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain
2000
Unplugged V, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Man + Space, Gwanjiu Biennale, South Korea
Translation/Seduction/Displacement, White Box Gallery, New York, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, USA
The Song of the Earth: Biennals in Dialogue, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Positions Attitudes Actions, 4th Foto Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands
L'etat des Choses, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany
Rhizomes of Memory, Henie Onstad Kuntsenter, Oslo, Norway
1999
Africa by Africa: A Photographic View, Barbican Centre, London, UK; Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Identity and Environment, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
A South Photographs collective exhibition, Area Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1998
Blank_Architecture, apartheid and after, Nederlands Architecture Institute Rotterdam, Netherlands
3rd Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
Dreams and Clouds, KultuurHuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Democracy's Images, Bild Museet, Umea, Sweden
1997
Alternating Currents, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
1996
In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Images of Africa Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
Standard Bank National Festival of the Art, Grahamstown, South Africa
Colors: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
1995
Transitions: Contemporary Art from South Africa, F-Stop Gallery, Bath, UK
The Third International Photographic Biennale, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Panoramas of Passage, Standard Bank National Festival of the Arts, Grahamstown, South Africa
Les assises de l'Afrique au Siege de l'UNESCO, Paris, France
South African Photography, with Peter Magubane, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Gallery, Bonn, Germany
1994
1es Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
This Land is our Land, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
1993
Happy Sad Land, Herten Fotofestival - Herten, Germany
In Transit, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Montage '93 - International Festival of the Image, Rochester, New York
FNAC - Mother Jones Award winners 1992 - Light Factory Gallery, North Carolina, USA
1991
AA Vita ‘Art Now', Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Alltag schwarz-weiss: Fünf Fotografinnen und Fotografen aus Südafrika, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
1990
Zabalaza Cultural Festival, London, UK
History Workshop Open Day Festival, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Women's Exhibition, Malibongwe Women's Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Going Home, with Paul Weinberg, Canon Image Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1989
Black Sash Human Rights Exhibition, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Selected Publications
2019
Santu Mofokeng. Stories, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
2016
Santu Mofokeng. Stories: 2-4, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
2015
Santu Mofokeng. Stories: 1, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
Graves 2012, MAKER, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
Santu Mofokeng: The Black Photo Album/Look at me 1890-1950, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
2011
Chasing Shadows, Santu Mofokeng, Thirty Years of Photographic Essays (monograph), Prestel Verlag, Munich, Germany
Curating
2001
Compound to Kraal: Salvaging and Refiguring the Duggan-Cronin Collection, with Thierry Secretan, The Workers’ Library and Museum, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa
1997
Fin de Sieclè, (Naivety in SA documentary Photography - Andrew Tshabangu and Lien Botha.) Nantes Festival, France
1996
2nd Recontre de la Photographie Africaine, with Marilyn Martin, Bamako, Mali