South Africa 2024

Set against the backdrop of histories of forced migration and land dispossession in South Africa the exhibition, “Quiet Ground,” is focused on the possibilities of personal and communal repair in a context of being foreign at home.

In this way, these themes link the pavilion and exhibition to the occasion of 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa; marking the nation’s continued journey towards correcting the historic disruptions of indigenous people’s connection to the land.

The pavilion’s programme unfold through 3 pillars: Art in South Africa; The Land as Classroom, and notions of Repair through Art. The exhibition, and its parallel public programs, will focus on the many ways that the dispossessed reconnect with the land through processes of rehoming and land rehabilitation, rooted in indigenous knowledge.

Unfolding under the theme, “…because the land is ours” to assert ideas, practices of building belonging by listening to the land as a portal to reroute and re-root ourselves against violence and displacement.