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Stephen Hobbs, Mnara (Tower) (2025), in the JCAF courtyard. -
Installation view of Structures exhibition entrance showing Rebecca Potterton, Marks of Home (2025), and in the background Kader Attia, Untitled (Ghardaïa) (2009). -
Installation view of Structures exhibition, with Kader Attia, Untitled (Ghardaïa) (2009) in the foreground, and Hélio Oiticica, PN 28 “Nas Quebradas” (1979) behind. -
Installation view showing Kader Attia, Untitled (Ghardaïa) (2009). © Kader Attia. -
Installation view of Structures exhibition, from foreground: Kader Attia, Untitled (Ghardaïa) (2009); Hélio Oiticica, PN 28 “Nas Quebradas” (1979); MADEYOULOOK, Dinokana (2024). -
Installation view showing Hajra Waheed, This Is Not a Door, Just a Sense There Might Be One at Some Point 1-2 (2019); and Jellel Gasteli, Untitled (Blanche No. III), Untitled (Blanche No. V) and Untitled (Blanche No. XXIV) (1996). -
Installation view of Structures exhibition, from left: Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Panel Beaters Wall III (2023); Hajra Waheed, This Is Not a Door, Just a Sense There Might Be One at Some Point 1-2 (2019); and Jellel Gasteli, Untitled (Blanche No. III), Untitled (Blanche No. V) and Untitled (Blanche No. XXIV) (1996). -
Installation view showing Hélio Oiticica, PN 28 “Nas Quebradas” (1979). © César and Claudio Oiticica. -
Installation view showing Kiluanji Kia Henda, Structures of Survival (Namibe Desert) (2022). © the artist. -
Installation view showing photographs by David Goldblatt at left and Matri-Archi(tecture), Building Africa: The State of Things! (2023) installation at right. -
Installation view showing Matri-Archi(tecture), Building Africa: The State of Things! (2023). © Matri-Archi(tecture) and African State Architecture. -
Installation view showing MADEYOULOOK, Dinokana (2024). © MADEYOULOOK. Commissioned by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture for La Biennale di Venezia 2024. -
Installation view of Structures exhibition, in the foreground MADEYOULOOK, Dinokana (2024). -
Installation view showing Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (2025). © Igshaan Adams. -
Installation view showing Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (2025); in the background MADEYOULOOK, Dinokana (2024) -
Gebedswolke (2025). Site-specific installation. © Igshaan Adams
As part of a trilogy of exhibitions presented by the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Structures brings together artists and architects who engage with questions of space, place and race.
WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Graham De Lacy, courtesy of the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation
Centred on the theme of “Worldmaking”, Structures explores the type of world we wish to create and leave for future generations through an ongoing series of exhibitions at the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF).
As the second instalment of this three-year exhibition, Structures focuses on the built environment in all its various forms. A structure can be understood in both material and immaterial terms. It might represent a body of knowledge, a social framework, or an infrastructural system treated as a single entity, held together by a plan, a pattern or a guiding logic.
While the featured artworks engage with political issues, they also examine the poetics of the relationship between materials and meaning. Structures reflects on what is embedded in physical structures – and how people themselves can become a form of infrastructure.
This is expressed throughout the exhibition in different ways: monuments that convey political ideologies, the Bahurutshe and Bakoni peoples’ evolving relationship to land following displacement, couscous as a prompt for conversations around Algeria’s cultural heritage, and stories of migration that intersect with acts of place-making.
“At the heart of these concerns lies a central question: How have indigenous forms of artistry, tradition and knowledge contributed to architecture and everyday life in the Global South – more especially in a South African context?” asks JCAF’s Executive Director and curator of the exhibition, Clive Kellner.
Featured artists
- Igshaan Adams (South Africa)
- Kader Attia (Algeria/ France)
- Kamyar Bineshtarigh (Iran/South Africa)
- Jellel Gasteli (Tunisia/France)
- David Goldblatt (South Africa)
- Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola)
- MADEYOULOOK (South Africa)
- Matri-Archi(tecture) (South Africa/Switzerland)
- Hélio Oiticica (Brazil)
- Hajra Waheed (India)
Special projects
- Wolff Architects (South Africa)
- Rebecca Potterton (South Africa)
- Stephen Hobbs (South Africa)
Last year, JCAF presented Ecospheres, a reflection on the natural world, and in 2026 Futures will explore the techno-future. Structures runs until 15 November 2025. | jcaf.org.za
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