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Indlela Ibuzwa Kwabaphambili
In conversation with SABC News on the occasion of his eleventh solo exhibition at Stevenson, Cape Town, Mawande Ka Zenzile reflects on ancestral knowledge, isiXhosa ways of knowing, and the transformation of cow dung into a powerful visual language that challenges dominant Western art histories.
Grounded in decolonial thinking and indigenous idioms, the artist discusses ukuthwasa, intuition as abantu abadala — the elders speaking — and the sacredness of ubugqi in contemporary practice.
Film & Video
Meet Mawande Ka Zenzile - SA Pavilion Venice Biennale 2019
Meet Mawande Ka Zenzile who exhibited under the South African Pavilion's theme 'The Stronger We Become' at the 58th Venice Biennale
Udludlilali - Exhibition Walkthrough with Sinazo Chiya
A video walkabout of Ka Zenzile's solo exhibition 'Udludlilali' at Stevenson Cape Town, featuring the artist in conversation with writer Sinazo Chiya
The Stronger We Become - Roundtable Discussion
Roundtable discussion with curators and artists of the South African Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale
Archive · Press Clipping
Sunday Sun · 27 January 2008
Artist with different taste
An early profile of a 22-year-old Mawande Ka Zenzile, written by Tarzan Mbita. Selected for a prestigious three-month programme in Norway, the artist speaks candidly about self-discovery, the body, and the journey to understand his own self — his work then on display at the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island at the V&A Waterfront.
Art Practice Beyond Theoretical Learning: An Interview with Mawande Ka Zenzile
Lois Anguria
The artist discusses creativity, academic structures and power with Lois Anguria.
Class is in Session: Knowledge Dissemination in Mawande Ka Zenzile's uZenzile akakhalelwa
Voni Baloyi
Voni Baloyi closely observes the artist's treatment of form in uZenzile akakhalelwa — on layering, opacity, and the obfuscation of matter through cow dung texture.
Prime: Art's Next Generation
Nkgopoleng Moloi
As part of Phaidon's anthology of 'the most distinctive and innovative young artists from around the world working today', Nkgopoleng Moloi reflects on Ka Zenzile's minimalist language and deconstruction of methods of knowing.
Akukho Muzi Ungathunqi Ntuthu: Local Knowledge as Creative Rebellion
Nomusa Makhubu
Nomusa Makhubu appraises Ka Zenzile's rejection of prevailing conventions, describing his work as a 'rebellion against the systemic violence of our current educational and cultural institutions.'
Muṱhala: Through Johnny Mbizo Dyani and Mawande Ka Zenzile
Kabelo Malatsie
Kabelo Malatsie proposes the methodologies of both artists as frameworks for emancipation, on the importance of perpetual pursuit and turning inherited truths upside down.
Archetypocalypse — Exhibition Review
Themba Tsotsi
'He is conscious of the universal ontological space he occupies and attempts to dismantle the characteristics that supposedly define his modality' — on Ka Zenzile's 2017 exhibition Archetypocalypse.
Everywhere and Nowhere
Lwandile Fikeni
Lwandile Fikeni reviews Mawande Ka Zenzile's solo exhibition at Stevenson Johannesburg.
Sharing Ground, Staking Claim
Hansi Momodu-Gordon
'I think that's the most important part for me: the process, the art-making, it heals me, it makes me alive and it makes me forget about traumatic things' — Mawande Ka Zenzile in conversation.
Lessons on Lost Knowledge
Three students respond to the exhibition Mawande Ka Zenzile at Stevenson Johannesburg.
Cow dung rather than faeces, but it is of our time
Chris Thurman
Chris Thurman views Mawande Ka Zenzile's exhibition Statecraft and finds it to be timely in the best sense of that word.
The State of Our Freedom
Lwandile Fikeni
Lwandile Fikeni reviews Statecraft at Stevenson Cape Town.
Maybe if you made this video it would be more technically resolved!
Sean O'Toole
Mawande Ka Zenzile in conversation with Sean O'Toole.