Soil Conversations brings nine artistic positions from Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Berlin together, investigating the granularity of soil. With themes such as soil as material, identity, memory, body, and the digital and speculative aspects of soil, we turn JAG into a platform to connect and wander.
Including LUNGISWA GQUNTA / MADEYOULOOK / IO MAKANDAL / SILVIA NORONHA / NNENNA ONUOHA / NATALIE PANENG / THERESA SCHUBERT / GEMMA SHEPHERD & ROCHELLE NEMBHARD / MIA THOM
SOIL CONVERSATIONS looks at the granularity of soil as material, our relationship to the ground on which we build life on, and soil as a bearer of memory, identity, and futures. In that, the exhibition itself becomes a research platform including performances, and is the basis for writings in conjunction with the present artistic concepts. The exhibition investigates the relationship between ourselves and the environment we live in, both in digital and analogue spheres. Topics of land, history, spirituality and the body – as physical manifestation and theoretical representation – are integral parts of the artworks. By defying a linear ontology of history, the exhibition explores the plurality of the past, and future scenarios that lead into the unknown, aiming to engage with the speculative as a defining position of there here and now, as a relationship between us and the world.
SOIL CONVERSATIONS has been shown in Berlin at Galerie im Körnerpark from 27th May to 30th August. The project was conceived in Johannesburg and now sees its iteration back where its seed was planted.
As in Berlin so in Johannesburg, SOIL CONVERSATIONS extends itself to textual engagements, performances, and engagements in the space and online from 27th August to 18th November.
Curated by Nisha Merit & Yolanda Kaddu-Mulindwa
Concept by Nisha Merit in collaboration with Lindiwe Mngxitama
SOIL CONVERSATIONS is realised in collaboration with Bubblegum Club,
Funded by the Fund TURN2 from the German Federal Cultural Foundation and by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media
Instagram: soil_conversations_project
Website: soilconversations.com