Hlanganani

At its center, this exhibition is an act of activism. For twenty years, Muholi has documented Pride marches and queer communities around the world, insisting on the visibility of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex lives. That work continues beyond the gallery through the Muholi Art Institute (MAI), which Muholi founded in Cape Town in 2021 to advance art education, community outreach and youth development. MAI’s educational program underpins the public activities accompanying this exhibition: for Muholi, education on Pride and queer visibility is not a single day or season, but a 365-day commitment. The exhibition opens with self-portraits from Somnyama Ngonyama (“Hail the Dark Lioness”, 2012–ongoing), made largely while Muholi is travelling for exhibitions and residencies and constructed from whatever is at hand: hotel bedding, curtains, everyday objects. Alongside this, the exhibition presents a dedicated installation of Faces and Phases, initiated in 2006, the same year South Africa became the first country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Muholi first photographed Amsterdam’s queer community for the series during a 2009 residency in the city; for this exhibition, they have returned to photograph new members of Amsterdam’s Black queer community, extending the archive into the city once again, seventeen years on. Muholi’s relationship to Amsterdam dates to a three-month residency with the Thami Mnyele Foundation in 2009, which shaped early self-portrait series including Being (T)here. In 2017, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presented Muholi’s first solo museum exhibition in the Netherlands. About Zanele Muholi Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, Umlazi, Durban) is a visual activist, humanitarian and art practitioner whose work documents and celebrates the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex communities. Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg (2001–2003), and completed an MFA in Documentary Media at what is now Toronto Metropolitan University (2009). That same year, they undertook a residency with the Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam. They co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (2002) and Inkanyiso (2009), and in 2021 established the Muholi Art Institute in Cape Town. Muholi’s work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, London; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Gropius Bau, Berlin; and the Serralves Museum, Porto, among many others, and has been shown in the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, at dOCUMENTA (13), and at the 29th São Paulo Biennial. Muholi lives and works between Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.