Thokoza Takes Paris: SA Photographers to Exhibit at PhotoSaintGermain Festival

Oct 25, 2024

The PhotoSaintGermain festival is a photography event that will be held in France, from the 30 October to the 23 November 2024. It has been held since 2021, so about three consecutive years now, and the fourth festival is about to begin from next week.

Photo: Sibusiso Bheka, fiso Jodwana, Phola Park, 2020

The festival, ‘brings together a selection of museums, cultural centres, galleries and bookstores around a rich and eclectic photographic itinterary’. Through this, cultural histories and the existence of unique identities all around the world are brought together, and to the fore. Alongside the exhibition comes press events, talks, and opportunities for the artists to comment on their work, and have conversations surrounding them.

Particularly noteworthy are two artists, photographers Tshepiso Mazibuko and Sibusiso Bheka, whose joint collaboration and works will be presented at the PhotoSaintGermain Festival. Their exhibition, Ubusukunemini (Day and Night), will be featured, and will give exposure and insight into township life in South Africa.

Background of Artists

Mazibuko and Bheka are former students of a photography initiative called Of Soul and Joy, that ‘extends its support by providing young photographers with trainings and access to a network of key cultural players on a local and international scene’. The select youth, from the local high school, or the township of Thokoza (where the programme is centred and concentrated) use the art of photography as a ‘tool for emancipation’. They are not only trained in producing art that liberates and frees them, but are encouraged to use it as a form of expression as the generation emerging out of a post-Apartheid context.

Of Soul and Joy provides many opportunities and benefits to their members, such as scholarships, work opportunities and mentorship for aspiring artists, specifically in the field of photography. As mentioned, it was focused within the township of Thokoza, but today, ‘attracts emerging photographers coming from different surrounding townships in Johannesburg’. It is therefore an ever-growing movement, and in so, increasing the opportunities and access for South African youth.

Mazibuko and Bheka have emerged from these backgrounds and training programmes, and have both used it as a springboard into their artistic careers, and where they are at this present moment.

Tshepiso Mazibuko

Mazibuko is a Johannesburg-based photographer, initially involved in the realm of journalism. Despite this switch, she remains true to how she uses art for expression, ‘stories of people who live near her, documenting the township where she was born and still lives’.

By using her biography and immediate surroundings as a direct source of inspiration, Mazibuko hones in on aspects of ‘light and focus’ to emphasise and subtly communicate themes of the sensitivity, coming together of past and present, and healing of ‘human circumstance’. Specific subjects and mediums used include, as mentioned, light, shadows, focus and blurring. Through distinct and clear-cut images, she paints environments encapsulating power lines and grass, serving as a background for blurred shadows and silhouettes, indicating movement and dynamism. This harmony reflects a, ‘dynamic relationship between the people depicted and the environment in which they live in’.

Mazibuko has also been accredited with many accolades over the past few years, and is making significant progressions as she grows as an artist. Her collaboration with Bheka has contributed to this growth in a ground-breaking exhibition later this month.

Sibusiso Bheka

Bheka, too, is an emerging artist, trained and grown under Of Soul and Joy. He also works and lives in Thokoza, and uses small details of township life to reflect and convey the entirety of such an experience. Bheka’s work is solely associated with the dark. Where Mazibuko uses light and shadow, Bheka, ‘documents his environment by night, giving us to see his reality of Thokoza, his playful moments almost surreal just before light disappears’.

The last few dregs of light in the day, before the sun sets reflect the sliver of hope and optimism that parallels with South Africa’s past of oppression and suffering, with the sense of positivity and ‘celebration’ that can be found even in the, literally and figuratively, darkest of times. Bheka has also been growing in his works, style and prestige as an artist, making his collaboration with Mazibuko meaningful to not only South Africans, but an homage and tribute to their roots: Thokoza.

Together, Mazibuko and Bheka provide not only unique subjectivities of township life, but the distinctive histories, identities and realities of the South African context.

Ubusukunemini (Day and Night)

Mazibuko and Bheka’s collaboration, named Ubusukunemini, translates directly to ‘day and night’. From the onset, this may appear as a collaboration between their artistic styles: using light, versus using darkness. This may also be interpreted as a coming together of their inspiration, and meaning behind their distinctive works. A capturing of people in their everyday environments, alongside a commentary on South Africa’s socio-political landscape, with hopes and suggestions of what it could potentially be.

The collaboration of the work, style and meaning of both artist’s work also call into question the idea of being ‘born free’, ‘a term designating the black youth…who never experienced apartheid’ yet continue to grapple with its legacies and long-lasting effects thirty years later. Ubusukunemini has been curated by Valérie Fougeirol for the PhotoSaintGermain Festival, and is rooted in themes of history, memory, belonging and identity. Fougeirol comments, ‘this exhibition is a dialogue about the present and the past, captured through the lens of Thokoza's landscape, its community, and its memory…

The photographers transport viewers between day and night, burning colour and timeless black and white. Together, their work reflects a stillness and a persistent yearning for change in the South African township’. This is particularly revolutionary for South Africa, and South Africans, as it serves as an opportunity to represent and reflect on untold stories, and the stories that follow them as a result.

Events and Public Engagements

Representation is an act that is very few and far between, and the opportunity to do it right, and do it justice has not gone unnoticed by Mazibuko and Bheka. The PhotoSaintGermain Festival not only permits exhibition, but also an opportunity for the artists to speak about their work, and educate those who might be interested, and stimulate and evoke further engagement from those who are already passionate.

They will participate in three public conversations with Fougeirol at Galerie David Ghezelbash in Paris on 2 November at 15:00 CEST, 5 November at 11:00 CEST, and 9 November at 15:00 CEST. Some other events that the two will participate in, as part of the PhotoSaintGermain Festival, include La Nuit du Photojournalisme (Night of Photojournalism) from 9 to 10 November (18h00 PM to 02h00 AM), and a panel discussion with journalists, content creators and various members of the digital community. The theme of the discussion will be ‘State of the Union’, where they will have the opportunity to not only speak about their works, but the circumstances that shaped and inspired them.

As Mazibuko has affirmed, ‘Stay true to yourself, don’t follow what you think sells and change your own story’. Such a testament has never held this much weight as she now holds a chance to reframe and redefine the norms and expectations of conventional modes, and contribute to a greater South African narrative.