The Stellenbosch Triennale, a pivotal event on the global art calendar, will once again transform the historic town of Stellenbosch into a dynamic open-air gallery next year.
The brainchild of NPO Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust (SOST), the free-access Triennale promises to be a profound xploration of art, community and existence under a evocative theme y sociologist, sangoma and chief curator Khanyisile Mbongwa, “BA’ZINZILE: A Rehearsal for Breathing”.
The Stellenbosch Triennale debuted in 2020 with a bold vision: to elevate the town as a premier destination for multidisciplinary art in Africa and create a platform where public art and creativity engage critically with society. The inaugural event set a high standard with its array of provocative installations and performances that challenged visitors to rethink their surroundings and themselves.
Building on this foundation, the 2025 edition seeks to push boundaries even further. “For this Triennale I want us to enter into a rehearsal space as a way of imagining how we can co-create in the real world, how exhibition making in itself is a rehearsal space for the things we want to do,” Mbongwa explained.
“And as such, I have invited artists to make their work on-site over a 10-day period that can be recycled or disintegrated back to land after the Triennale so as to minimise my carbon footprint by not transporting artworks back and forth. In this way, we get to enact a playfulness in the making and witnessing the work.”
This commitment to sustainability and process forms part of the curators practice of “care and cure”. Mbongwa, a Stellenbosch University alumnus who works within public realm, interventions and interdisciplinary practices in this project, heeded the call from her ancestors to mediate on themes that explore spirit, breath and improvisation.
“I am in the labour of my purpose,” she related. “My work is always expansive and a deep-time conversation with amadlozi (ancestors), uNkulunkulu (God/source), and abahlali (the collective of beings); as I move through and in the world, I’m invited into different geographical locations and called into spiritual ancestral indigenous conversations.”
Humble beginnings
The inaugural Stellenbosch Triennale took place at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which cut the event’s duration short and changed many lives. Project director and trustee Andi Norton draws parallels to this year’s exhibition sub-theme of rehearsal. “We had no idea that it would be open only for such a short time in 2020,” he said. “We had worked hard and sacrificed so much and to have it all be shut down so soon was devastating. It was only after a year or two that we could start exploring doing another one.
“Only now can we look back on it and see the incredible rehearsal space that it was for us. Through the theme the curator is giving us, organisers and artists, permission to experiment and play.”
The 2025 theme invites artists and audiences to contemplate the act of breathing, both a fundamental physical process and a metaphor for resilience and survival. “Breathing in states of duress, breathing through wounds,” Mbongwa reflected in her curatorial statement. “We persist, we insist, we improvise our existence in a world that often feels like it’s losing its breath.”
Unlike traditional art exhibitions, the Stellenbosch Triennale 2025 will be a living, breathing entity, constantly evolving over its two-month duration. The intention is to invite visitors to enter a rehearsal space with the artists, where some works will exist in a space of improvisation, some in the space of composition and intervention, others in exploration in the ways we negotiate our breath and ultimately our aliveness.
Assistant curator Dr Mike Mavura added: “We wanted the artists to think of breath in multiple ways in relation to the human body and to start to think of breath in expanded ways; what happens when you breathe deeply? What happens when you are short of breath? And then, what happens when you can’t breathe?”
This conceptual framework will be evident in the diverse array of mediums on display, from visual art and sculpture to sound installations, performance, and dance.
Lots of talent
The 2025 Stellenbosch Triennale will feature an impressive line-up of artists from Africa and beyond. Among the artists participating In The Current include Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe (Democratic Republic of Congo), Aline Motta (Brazil), Aziz Hazara (Afghanistan), Lebohang Kganye (South Africa), Simphiwe Ndzube (South Africa), Torkwase Dyson (USA), Thierry Oussou (Benin) and William Miko (Zambia).
The featured artists in On the Cusp include Astrid González (Colombia-Chile), Helen Zeru (Ethiopia), Kasangati Godelive Kabena (Democratic Republic of Congo), Manyaku Mashilo (SA), Nandele Muguni (Mozambique), Simphiwe Buthelezi (SA), Takunda Regis Billiat (Zimbabwe) and Tuli Mekodjo (Namibia).
The exhibition will take place at the Oude Libertas precinct and across multiple venues throughout the town, turning Stellenbosch into a curated public laboratory for creative expressions and engagements. The collaboration with the SOST and other local institutions ensures a rich, textured experience that reflects the unique cultural and natural landscape of the region, recognised for its vineyards and academic excellence.
It will be held from Wednesday 19 February to Wednesday 30 April 2025 at Oude Libertas, the Woodmill, Rupert Museum and Stellenbosch University Museum. Entry is free to the public.
- For more information, visit www.stellenboschtriennale.com.
