Dineo Seshee Bopape. "Born in the first light of the morning [moswara'marapo]"
The exhibition creates a sensory landscape that extends from the ocean to the mountain and brings the visitor along interconnected narratives that touch on distant geographies
Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting) (2017) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
The exhibition in Pirelli HangarBicocca brings together a wide range of works as well as new productions by Dineo Seshee Bopape (b. Polokwane, South Africa, 1981; lives and works in Johannesburg).
“Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo]” (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Bopape's oeuvre combines digital and technological aesthetic vocabularies — investigated through video and sound — with sculptural works and installations characterized by organic and symbolic media.
Mabu,mubu,mmu, sa_ _ke lerole, (sa lerole ke_ _) (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Earth and water are here at the center of the artist’s research. She uses them as media both for their tactile and sound qualities and for their transformative potential of healing and fecundity.
Earth and water are also witnesses and memory keepers of all that has transpired upon them, including climate disasters, displacements, and migrations.
Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting) (2017) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
The exhibition gives visitors the chance to explore Bopape's practice, which reflects on the relationships between ritual, spirituality and nature, on political resistance and on concepts of memory, identity and belonging.
“Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo]” (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Taking as a starting point her own experience in her homeland, South Africa, the artist weaves narratives that investigate archetypes and myths in which the female figure plays a central role.
“Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo]” (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
The first part of the title recalls a state of rebirth and transformation in which light, the pivotal element of cosmology through the stars, metaphorically directs earthly life.
The inclusion of the words moswara’marapo in Sepedi literally translates as “the holder of bones,” bones allegorically being the minerals that hold the memories. It also evokes the “presence” of a “master of ceremonies,” through whom rites of passage are traversed.
lerato laka le a phela le a phela le a phela / My love is alive, is alive, is alive (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Among the works of art exhibited, lerato laka le a phela le a phela le a phela/My love is alive, is alive, is alive, commissioned by TBA21–Academy and co-produced by Pirelli HangarBicocca, recalls centuries of African diaspora and stories older than human time.
lerato laka le a phela le a phela le a phela / My love is alive, is alive, is alive (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
The installation is a lyrical journey through time. Presented on three screens with a sedimentary rock (limestone) projection surface, it welcomes the visitor in a circular court.
Mothabeng (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
The exhibition presents also the site specific installation Mothabeng, a structure made of compressed earth in the shape of a dome visually reminiscent of a womb or egg and calling to mind vernacular architectures.
Mothabeng (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Inside Mothabeng, visitors can listen to an audio recording with the sounds of the mountain especially made for Pirelli HangarBicocca in a marble quarry in the Apuan Alps. The installation was produced with the support of Fondazione Henraux.
Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting) (2017) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Several international institutions have organized solo exhibitions by Dineo Seshee Bopape, including Ocean Space, Venice, Secession Vienna, (2022); the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond (2021);
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, and Darling Foundry, Montreal (2017); Art in General, New York, and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016); Hordeland Kunst Sentrum, Bergen, and Hayward Gallery Project Space, London (2015); and August House, Johannesburg (2014).
“Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo]” (2022) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
In 2019, she was one of the artists representing South Africa at the 58th Venice Biennale. Besides, she has also taken part in numerous group shows, including Sydney Biennale, Manifesta 14 (2022); Prospect New Orleans (2021); Busan Biennale (2020);
Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2018); Sharjah Biennale (2017); Marrakech Biennale, Bienal de São Paulo, Montreal Biennale, SeMA Media City Seoul (2016); and Biennale de Lyon (2013).
(Serithi) The rest, as they used to say, is story (2021) by Dineo Seshee BopapePirelli HangarBicocca
Dineo Seshee Bopape was awarded the Artes Mundi Prize in 2021, the Future Generation Art Prize and the Sharjah Biennial 13 Prize in 2017.
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