Latitudes; Supporting Emerging Voices

From 26-28 May 2023, the Latitudes team will bring together artists and exhibitors from across the continent to transform Shepstone Gardens, a magnificent three-acre property in Johannesburg, into a curated celebration of art from Africa.

The central curatorial theme for this year’s edition is co-emergence. “In the context of African art, coemergence refers to the complexities embedded in the interaction of various cultural and aesthetic influences on the creation and interpretation of African art,” says Latitudes Special Projects Curator, Nkhensani Mkhari. In "looking both ways" practitioners working on the African continent or beyond explore how these diverse aesthetics and cultural influences echo each other in the diaspora and African contemporary art.

Latitudes understands that programmes focused on fostering professional practice skills for young curators in Africa are rare. In order to support emerging voices, Latitudes founded CuratorLab in 2021, a practice-based, online curatorial residency for emerging curators.

For the 2023 iteration, RMB has supported this impactful programme, which has allowed the Latitudes team to extend their reach and offer participation to curators from not only South Africa, but also Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia and Mozambique.

The programme is facilitated by five instrumental mentors from the arts industry, who offer professional practice sessions and one-on-one guidance to support and shape the mentees’ exhibitions. This group consists of Makgati Molebatsi, Luvuyo Nyawose, Nantume Violet and Latitudes’ own Nkhensani Mkhari and Nina Carew. critically discerning and knowledgeable curators who will bring new and fresh perspectives to exhibition-making while contributing to the nurturing of artists’ career trajectories, their cultural relevance and connection to audiences.

CuratorLab is a necessary platform for providing a foundation for curators’ creative ideation and an opportunity for learning and honing their curatorial practice", says Molebatsi.

Nyawose expands on this by stating that the CuratorLab mentorship programme is significant because it provides curators with a platform to critically engage and network with creative practitioners of various levels, on strategies ofexhibition-making from a multi-lensed perspective.

The ten curators selected for 2023 are Tsholofelo Radebe, Motheo Mamabolo, Denzel Nyathi, Gemma Hart, Nonzuzo Gxekwa (South Africa); Laschandrè Coetzee (Namibia);

Basadi Dibeela (Botswana); Jadesola Olaniyan (Nigeria); Kezia Ouomoye Owusu-Ankomah (Ghana); and Carina Ubisse Capitine (Mozambique).

The 2023 RMB Latitudes CuratorLab shows will go live on 5 April on Latitudes Online, running for 6 weeks.

Latitudes team

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