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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261017T090000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261205T160000
DTSTAMP:20261006T070335Z
CREATED:20261006T070332Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261006T070335Z
UID:10000634-1792227600-1796486400@urbanlifestylesa.co.za
SUMMARY:Zanele Muholi Brings 20 Years of Faces Home
DESCRIPTION:There is something powerful about returning home with a story that started there. \n\n\n\nFor Zanele Muholi\, that homecoming arrives in Johannesburg this October as Sibaningi brings two decades of Faces and Phases back to the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown — the very place where the landmark portrait series began in 2006. \n\n\n\nOpening on Saturday\, 17 October 2026\, the exhibition arrives just days after Muholi receives the prestigious Hasselblad Award in Gothenburg\, Sweden. But while the international recognition is significant\, Sibaningi feels less like a victory lap and more like a return to the people and place that made the work possible. \n\n\n\nA Homecoming With History \n\n\n\nSibaningi\, an isiZulu word meaning “we are many”\, is a fitting title for an exhibition centred on visibility. \n\n\n\nFaces and Phases has spent 20 years documenting Black lesbian\, queer and trans lives across South Africa and beyond. Rather than reducing those lives to stories of discrimination or violence\, Muholi’s work has consistently insisted on something more fundamental: the right to be seen as whole human beings. \n\n\n\nThe portraits capture people living\, working\, loving\, ageing and changing. \n\n\n\nThat makes this exhibition particularly relevant in a moment when conversations around identity\, representation and belonging continue to shape South African culture. \n\n\n\nAnd there is an important full-circle moment here. Muholi studied at the Market Photo Workshop\, founded by David Goldblatt in 1989. It was within this Johannesburg creative environment that Faces and Phases began. \n\n\n\nTwenty years later\, the work returns with history behind it — and more history still being made. \n\n\n\nMore Than Photographs \n\n\n\nOne of the most compelling aspects of Sibaningi is the way it approaches the archive as something living. \n\n\n\nEarly portraits are placed alongside later images of participants\, allowing audiences to witness changes in gender expression\, relationships\, careers\, homes\, age and circumstance. \n\n\n\nThe photographs therefore become more than individual portraits. Together\, they form a visual record of lives unfolding over time. \n\n\n\nNew faces also enter the series\, reinforcing the idea that the archive is never truly finished. \n\n\n\nFor a younger generation navigating questions of identity and representation online and offline\, that idea resonates. What we document today becomes part of what future generations use to understand who we were. \n\n\n\nFrom Johannesburg to the World \n\n\n\nMuholi’s international recognition makes the Johannesburg exhibition even more significant. \n\n\n\nThe Hasselblad Award — regarded as one of photography’s most prestigious honours — comes with SEK 2 million\, a gold medal\, a Hasselblad camera and a solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center running until April 2027. \n\n\n\nMuholi is the first Black queer African photographer to receive the award. \n\n\n\nYet Sibaningi deliberately brings that global moment back to Johannesburg. \n\n\n\nThe exhibition opens during Africa Pride month and forms part of the Muholi Art Institute‘s ongoing work around photography\, education and archives. \n\n\n\nOn opening day\, Muholi will speak at midday before the exhibition officially opens. Entry is free\, making the opportunity to experience two decades of South African visual history accessible to a broad Johannesburg audience. \n\n\n\nWe Are Many \n\n\n\nSibaningi ultimately feels like both an archive and an affirmation. \n\n\n\nTwenty years after Faces and Phases began\, the message remains clear: these lives were here\, are here and will continue to be here. \n\n\n\nBack in the city where the series started\, Muholi isn’t simply looking backwards. \n\n\n\nThey are showing Johannesburg how much has changed\, how much remains unfinished — and why documenting the present still matters. \n\n\n\nSibaningi runs from 17 October to 5 December 2026 at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown\, Johannesburg. Entry is free.
URL:https://urbanlifestylesa.co.za/event/zanele-muholi-brings-20-years-of-faces-home/
LOCATION:Market Photo Workshop\, 138 Lilian Ngoyi St\, Newtown\, Johannesburg\, 2001\, South Africa
CATEGORIES:Art
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