South African Pavilion Dubai Expo 2021

For the South African Pavilion, Dubai Expo 2020, Photo:, on commission by the South African Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, is producing an animated visual projection of photographic work which transforms and emphasizes flora and fauna of South African as its major theme.

The artists selected to create work for the Dubai Expo 2020 are Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, Kelebogile Ntladi and Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose. Their work explores ancestry and rock art, collaged hybrid animal forms and the natural world, human interactions with nature, the elements and microorganisms that we cannot see.

Photo: and the artists are working alongside News From Home, a production company focused on experimental and artist film, through workshop based engagements and individual sessions to create the photographic production.

The Dubai Expo 2020 South African Pavilion’s theme ‘Think Opportunity, Think South Africa’ is aimed at encouraging local and international recognition, business opportunities and tourism within South Africa to showcase the country as a strong destination for business and investment.

The work will run from 25 October - 31 October 2021. The Dubai Expo 2020 is running from 1 October 2021 – 31 March 2022.

Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo

Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo (b. 1993) is a photographer based in Lawley, Johannesburg. He uses the tavern run by his parents as a studio in which to investigate themes of first-hand and generational trauma, violence and memory. 

He won the 2019 CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography with his series Slaghuis I.

His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Fotomuseum Winterthur, IAF Basel Festival, and Johannesburg’s Turbine Art Fair. Hlatshwayo was the Gisèle Wulfsohn Photography Mentorship Recipient for 2019 and was mentored by John Fleetwood. He held his first solo exhibition, Slaghuis II at the Market Photo Workshop in February 2020, and was an overall winner of the international Blurring the Lines photo award for 2020.

Kelebogile Ntladi

Kelebogile Ntladi is a Johannesburg-based photographer, mixed media artist and videographer. They were born in Soweto and raised in the East of Johannesburg. Ntladi has worked with various Queer and activist media organisations in Johannesburg. Ntladi’s work is concerned with gender, identity, history, and Afrofuturism. 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’s work explores the journey of being black & queer in contemporary South Africa. It speaks about trauma & healing within black families and deconstructing gender roles.

“I want to reach & connect with people young & old by combining history with modern lifestyles creating futuristic images of a society that values identity over sex.” Ntladi is represented by Photo:.

Luvuyo Nyawose

Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose is an artist, curator, filmmaker, researcher, and sessional lecturer. He recently submitted his MFA to the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at University of Cape Town in 2021. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Curatorship from the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town (2018), and a Bachelor of Arts in Motion Picture Medium from AFDA’s School for the Creative Economy in Cape Town. Nyawose recently had a solo exhibition eBhish’ at blank projects. 

Luvuyo portrait credit: ph Alexander Kilian. 

About Photo:

Photo: is a multi-operation platform for the development and promotion of socially engaged photography practices, photographers, and critical visual culture.

Through curatorial and educational projects throughout the African continent and beyond, Photo: promotes emerging and practicing photographers and photography with the aim to encourage critical and experimental approaches/responses, that challenge and stimulate how we think about photography and our world.

Further, through commissioning, producing and connecting photography projects and practitioners, Photo: wants to encourage dialogue, exchange, engagement and participation.

Central to its vision, is the idea that photography can be a delicate tool for social change.

Director, Photo: John Fleetwood

John Fleetwood (b. 1970, South Africa; lives and works in Johannesburg) is a photography curator, educator and director of Photo:

He recently curated ‘Intimacy and Resistance: An intergenerational dialogue on South African photobooks’, Photobook Week Aarhus (Denmark 2020), ‘Five Photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt’ (South Africa, Mozambique, Mali et al. 2018-2019) and ‘Of traps and tropes’ as part of Kerkennah International Photography Festival (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 has facilitated, organised and supported a range of different training interventions, activities and organisations including masterclasses, workshops across Africa and beyond. He convenes democraSEE, an award and mentorship programme for photographers in Africa.

Coordinator, Photo: Ravelle Pillay

Ravelle Pillay (b.1993) is a Johannesburg-based artist, painter and the coordinator of Photo:

Co-ordinated projects for Photo: include the 10:10 (2021), democraSEE Maputo, and CLPA News 2021 #1.  She previously worked in the secondary arts market and managed important relationships with artists, collectors and key industry professionals. She has co-ordinated commercial auctions and donated her time and expertise to various social outreach programmes and campaigns. Her work will be featured in group and solo exhibitions in 2021.

Coordinator, Photo: Crystal Wilton

Crystal Wilton is a filmmaker, researcher and coordinator at Photo:. An alumni of film from the University of the Witwatersrand School of Arts, and currently based in Johannesburg, her work and research focuses on experimental and documentary narrative forms with a specific interest in digital storytelling and content creation as a tool for social change, critical thinking and community building. In the wake of her academic career, she has since gone on to pursue a variety of interests in the creative arts such as a consultant, freelance filmmaker, educator, facilitator and artist in a number of companies and institutions, alongside independent artists and collectives.

News From Home
News From Home is a production company with a focus on experimental and artist film. Created in collaboration between Victoria Wigzell, Simon Gush and Andrei van Wyk. News From Home seeks to facilitate the creation of new films with flexible approaches to make film production accessible. With each of its members having developed the practical and conceptual aspects of their work over time, News From Home brings together these varying approaches in a collaborative environment.

Simon Gush
Simon Gush is an artist and filmmaker living in Johannesburg. His work examines labor, subjectivity and land. He completed a postgraduate certificate at the HISK, Ghent and a MA (Sociology), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His artworks and films have been widely exhibited in museums, film festivals and biennales.

Victoria Wigzell
Victoria Wigzell is an interdisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg. Wigzell’s critical interest in the framing of formal work as an estimation of value in everyday life has led her to the medium of film, in particular, documentary.  After completing an honours degree in Fine Arts at Wits University, Johannesburg, she went on to obtain an MFA in Arts in Public Spheres, from ECAV (now Édhea) in Sierre, Switzerland. She has participated in a number of local and international artist residency programmes, exhibitions and conferences.

Andrei van Wyk

Andrei van Wyk is a composer, musician and sound artist, based in Johannesburg. He has worked in the mediums of dance, film, performance and sound installation. He is currently an MA student in History at Rhodes University focusing on sonic history and dispossession in the Eastern Cape. 

Posted 21/10/2021.