Panel discussion - 'Microlight' by Jansen van Staden

Jansen van Staden in Conversation with Helena Uambembe and Neptune Alexandre

Join us on Wednesday 11 Nov at 18:30 for a live Zoom discussion between photographer Jansen van Staden, multidisciplinary artist Helena Uambemebe and photographer Neptune Alexandre. The discussion will be moderated by John Fleetwood, Photo: director.

Microlight was initiated after the death of Van Staden’s father in a microlight accident in Kenya in 2011. Van Staden later found a letter from his father to his therapist detailing acts he committed as a seventeen-year old conscript in the South African Defence Force deployed to the South African Border War. 

The photography series follows his attempts to unravel the mystery of his father while also questioning ideas of nationalism, and first-hand and intergenerational trauma which are being confronted by younger, post-war generations across the region and around the world.

Part of the launch programme for Van Staden’s upcoming photobook, Microlight, the conversation will focus on the fallout of the Border War and the implications it had not only at the time, but the resulting devastation and interruption to lives across the region. Through their respective practices, the panellists raise questions of belonging, family, migration, and personal and written history, all informed by this central conflict.

Participant biographies:

Jansen van Staden:

b.1986 South Africa. Van Staden is a South African photographer and author of Microlight. He uses street photography as a conceptual entry point to reflect on personal and social constructs of belonging and disconnect. He became a fellow at the Goethe Institut’s Photographers’ Masterclass in 2017 and graduated in 2018. His work was shown in Cities and Memory at Brandts, Odense as part of the Photo Biennale in Denmark (2016) and in Nimes, France as part of the South African show “Resiste” at NegPos gallery (2017). He recently received the CAP prize (2019) for his series Microlight, and the concurrent exhibitions and screenings have started traveling Europe and Africa. Van Staden was a nominee for the 2020 Paul Huf Award. The photobook, Microlight, was exhibited at the 2020 Photobook Week Aarhus festival as part of the exhibition Intimacy and Resistance, curated by John Fleetwood. Van Staden lives and works in Cape Town. 

Helena Uambembe 

b.1994, South Africa. Helena Uambembe obtained a B-tech in 2018 from the Tshwane University of Technology. In extension of her solo practice, she is also a member of the collective Kutala Chopeto., with Teresa Firmino. Uambembe is the 2019 David Koloane Award winner. As an interdisciplinary artist, she uses performance, photography and printmaking to recreate and reposition the history of the 32 Battalion – the infantry Battalion of the South African Army Founded in 1975, comprising mainly of Angolan soldiers. Uambembe draws on her own history rooted in the small North Western Town of Pomfret, where she was born to Angolan parents, and where her father was recruited into the 32 Battalion. The 32 Battalion becomes a master narrative she uses to investigate and explore the past. Fragmented pieces become a way of mending and compressing time while weaving together ideas around home and identity. Uambembe lives and works in Johannesburg.

Neptune Alexandre

b.1992, Angola. Neptune Alexandre was born and works in Luanda, Angola. As a toddler, Alexandre moved to Lisbon his family. His work focuses on questions of identity and belonging, with a special focus on the influence of external dominant cultures on youth in Africa. His practice is informed by having found himself without a sense of belonging to his national or cultural identity nor to his upbringing in Lisbon, as well as by the shared identity he eventually found through youth hip-hop and church groups. He practices as a photographer, videographer, editor and director.  Alexandre was selected to participate in the 2019 Catchupa Factory Residency in Mindelo, Cape Verde, where he produced and exhibited the body of work Kultura Ti Ka Viaja. His work has also been included in the 2019 Portrait Show hosted by the Through the Lens Collective in Johannesburg.

John Fleetwood

b. 1970, South Africa. John Fleetwood is a photography curator, educator and director of Photo:; a multi-operation platform for the development and promotion of socially engaged photography work, projects, photographers and critical visual culture. He recently curated ‘Five Photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt’ exhibited in various cities including Johannesburg, Maputo, Bamako (2018-2019); ‘Amongst other things’ (Mindelo, Cape Verde 2019), ‘Of traps and tropes’ (Kerkennah, Tunisia; 2018). In 2017, he was guest editor for Aperture’s Platform Africa edition. From 2002-2015 Fleetwood was the director of the Market Photo Workshop. He lives and works in Johannesburg.

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Posted 29/10/2020