Kelebogile Ntladi selected to participate in Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022

Kelebogile Ntladi has been selected to showcase her work at the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2022. Next year’s Biennale curated by Iris Sikking and titled From Where I Stand, is about “photographic practices at the crossroads of contemporary art, journalism and activism. For these artists, the photograph is a tool for visual research, which they have used to create multilayered narratives built on their thorough investigations and sensorial experiences of making the work.”

From Where I Stand will run from 19 March – 22 May 2022 in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg.

About Kelebogile Ntladi

Kelebogile Ntladi (b.1987) is a Johannesburg-based photographer, mixed media artist and videographer. She was born in Soweto and raised in the east of Johannesburg. Ntladi has worked with various Queer and activist media organisations in Johannesburg, including Keleketla Library, Inkanyiso Productions, the Iranti Organisation and the African Arts Institute. She was mentored by the renown photographer Muholi.

Ntladi’s work is concerned with deconstructing gender roles and explores themes of identity, history, and Afrofuturism. She explores the experience of being black and queer in contemporary South Africa, speaking to trauma and the potential for healing within black families. Through her works she hopes to connect with people of various generations and backgrounds to explore the possibility of a future society that rejects conservative notions of gender and sex in favour of individual identity.

She studied photography at the Market Photo workshop and has been included in several exhibitions including Queer in Africa in 2014 and Indentikit in 2012. Ntladi is represented by Photo:

Kelebogile Ntladi: “I had begun to feel that it was difficult to express and represent queer identities through traditional photography. I am constantly looking for more dynamic ways to tell stories. Social documentary has a history of manipulating reality and telling other people’s stories in ways that do not reflect lived experiences, which is why I begun deconstructing and reconstructing the images to get closer to true representation. By cutting and tearing documentary images I deconstruct their authority as truth-speaking and present them, fragmented, into my stories.”

About Cobra (2016)
Cobra is a photo collage series composed of photographs depicting South African world-champion athlete Caster Semenya in the now-iconic poses she makes after winning a race. Semenya has faced constant scrutiny around her gender identity since appearing on the world stage. This work is a tribute to her. Growing up I had no images to reference or figures to look to and I think it is important for young Queer people to see positive representations of Queer female identities in the media. 

Learn more about Kelebogile Ntladi:

https://kelebogilentladi.onfotomat.com/

About Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 

Since 2005, the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie takes place every two years in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg. For each edition, an internationally renowned guest curator is invited to develop six thematic exhibitions on a total of around 4,500 square meters in the most important exhibition houses throughout the three cities. A multifaceted analogue and digital educational programme for a large regional and international audience accompanies the exhibitions. In addition, the Biennale has established itself as an international get-together for photography experts. To realize the Biennale, cultural organisers and promoters in the Rhine-Neckar region work closely with artists and partners from all corners of the globe. The Biennale engages the three cities and their cultural institutions in a dialogue and has already become a model in Germany and beyond.

Learn more about Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie:

https://biennalefotografie.de/en