My Brilliant Career Triennial exhibition unveils the very finest of public art
Khanyisile Mbongwa is the chief curator of the Stellenbosch Triennale
What is the Stellenbosch Triennale, and what does the chief curator do?
The Stellenbosch Triennale is a multidisciplinary mega art exhibition that hosts creatives from Africa and the world. Exhibitions are free of charge and will take place at five permanent venues, including The Woodmill in Stellenbosch and other centres in and around Stellenbosch.
Our programming is made up of art exhibitions, public interventions, seminars, film festivals and education for school learners.
For more than two months people can come and enjoy some of the finest art from our continent, meet some of the artists and enter into critical and stimulating dialogue with their own senses.
As chief curator, my role is to conceptualise, direct and oversee all the curatorial programmes and make links to the triennale as a whole; to imagine and manifest the structural mechanisms that work for the dynamic team; to see where the critical intersections and dialogues are that position us as an organisation beyond the limits of our geographical location.
Tell me more about the work you do as a curator.
My curatorial practice engages with curating as cure and care.
So my projects are geared towards instigating spaces where creatives explore, engage, excavate, research the intersectionality of time as past, present and future through various themes and concerns.
My interest in how we imagine ourselves into existence and the kinds of sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures that influence and affect our lived experience.
What are your qualifications and how do you use them in your everyday work?
I have a master’s in interdisciplinary arts, public art and the public sphere, and I’m a sociologist.
My qualifications form part of my knowledge but I’m also informed and influenced by African and indigenous knowledge systems. We learn and grow through doing, by being brave enough to test our own theories and philosophies — to be reflexive.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
A scientist and dancer, because as a child I wanted to invent things that would alter the reality of black people ekasi [in townships], and most importantly I wanted to make a robot that would make my grandmother’s life easier. I have always loved dancing because I find so much freedom in dance.
What is the best career advice you’ve
Best advice was from my grandmother, and she was always clear that through whatever I do, money will always be a thing, so I must learn how to handle it.
What I learnt while she raised me and what has been affirmed as I grow is: trust your journey and back it up with skill and experience. Listen to your intuition, it will guide you. Never let anyone make you doubt your worth because you know the truth of what you have put in and what you haven’t.