Next stop: Berlin

South African artists, writers and curators travelled to Berlin and collectively curated the exhibition "it's all chinese to me - how abstract can one be?" which opened on 17 June at the projectspace by artists for artists after the butcher. The project was closed by a conversation with Khwezi Gule on 30 June.

Workshops at Polokwane Art Museum

Artists, poets and writers joined workshops organised by the art exchange project "beyond language" in collaboration with the Polokwane Art Museum on the weekend of 12 and 13 March.

The workshops focussed on three different fields:
- poetry and creative writing with Bandile Gumbi

- publishing and writing about art and culture with Fouad Asfour

- writing artist statements, CVs, artist biographies and funding applications (facilitated by Sharlene Khan as community outreach project of UNISA)

Claudia Shneider, Eva Seufert and Ingo Gerken closed the workshop presenting their work exhibited at "Figures of Speech" followed by a round table organised by Sharlene Khan who invited artists from Limpopo to discuss difficulties in accessing the art market.

Book launch and reading "Emzana Shack Recollections" by L. Sojini

Book launch of Lungile Sojini's English and Tsotsi-Taal literary debut entitled
Emzana Shack Recollections
Sunday, 6 March at noon at jozi art: lab, Arts on Main

News: Book launch and reading "Emzana Shack Recollections" by L. Sojini

beyond language presents the book launch of Lungile Sojini's English and Tsotsi-Taal literary debut, "Emzana Shack Recollections" this weekend:


Saturday, 5th of March 5, 3pm at Keleketla! Library, Drill Hall (Plein & Twist St) 


Sunday, 6th of March at noon at jozi art: lab, Arts on Main

Round Table artist discussion at Hector Pietersen Memorial and Museum

On the day after the exhibition opening, project participants presented their works and attended a programme of performances and presentations by artists, poets and musicians from the Room 13 project (www.room13.org.za; based at St. Martin de Porres High School in Soweto) at Hector Pietersen Memorial and Museum. The discussion was moderated by the director of the Museum, Khwezi Gule. 

"Figures of Speech" exhibition opening

“Figures of Speech” exhibition

Preparation meeting

Khwezi Gule, Ingo Gerken, Fouad Asfour, Sharlene Khan, Bandile Gumbi, Eva Seufert, Alexandra Ross (from left) Claudia Shneider (behind the camera) discussing the project and exhibition.

About the project

The exchange project “beyond language” is curated by Eva Seufert and Fouad Asfour in collaboration with the Johannesburg based artist collective Dead Revolutionaries Club (DRC). The project invites artists from South Africa and Germany to collaboratively engage in the creation of a series of exhibitions, workshops, discursive events and interventions which will take place in Johannesburg in February and March and in Berlin in June 2011.

In South Africa, the exhibition “Figures of Speech” will be opened at Jozi Art Lab on 25 February, followed by an artist round table at Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial in Soweto, a book launch at Keleketla! Library (based in Drill Hall in Johannesburg city centre) and an artist-run writing workshop at Polokwane Art Museum. In Berlin, an exhibition will be opened at the project space for contemporary art after the butcher and artists will present and discuss their work in the interdisciplinary project space Zentrum Kreuzberg, WestGermany.

Participating artists, writers and curators are:
from the DRC: Fouad Asfour, Khwezi Gule, Bandile Gumbi, Sharlene Khan, Amos Letsoalo
from Berlin: Eva Seufert and Ingo Gerken