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Press Release: Zanele Muholi. Photography

21. March 2014

Silence will not protect you
Zanele Muholi. Photography

22. März bis 9. Juni 2014
Kurator_innen: Birgit Bosold & Wolfgang Theis

An internationally recognized photographer, filmmaker and activist, Zanele Muholi deals with the experiences of the ‘black’ queer and especially lesbian community in South Africa and other African countries. In a repressive social and political climate which condemns queer ways of living and in which lesbians, gay men and trans* are faced with constant discrimination and persecution, her works represent acts of self-assertion and empowerment.

Her photographs intervene, are themselves deeds, political activism and resistance. She achieves a thematization of violence which does not portray individuals as victims. On the contrary, her photographs depict people who gaze confidently into the camera, make their own decisions and have voices of their own.

The exhibition presents and exclusive selection of Muholi’s body of work. Alongside an assortment of pieces chosen from amongst the artist’s early work (2003-2005), the Schwules Museum exhibits images from the series Beloved (2005-2010), Being (2007) and Faces and Phases (ongoing since 2006), as well as a selection of Muholi’s works on trans*persons and the video works Difficult Love (2010) and @24 (2011-2012).

Zanele Muholi (* 1972, Durban, South Africa) – Activist, photographer and filmmaker, lives and works in Johannesburg, recipient of the LGBTI Art and Culture Award in 2005 and 2009, as well as the Freedom of Expression Award from Index on Censorship in 2013. At the biennial of African photography Les Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters), Muholi was commended as best female photographer with the Jean-Paul Blachère and Casa Africa Awards. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, including Le Case d’Arte, Milan; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Stevenson, Cape Town; Documenta 13, Kassel; Kunsthalle Wien project space, Vienna; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In 2006, Zanele Muholi founded the online project Inkanyiso, “queer activism = queer media”.

A collaboration with amnesty international.