Quiet Ground – Meet The Team

Portia Malatjie
Curator

Portia Malatjie is a Senior Lecturer in Art History and Discourse of Art at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art and Adjunct Curator of Africa and African Diaspora at the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational at Tate Modern (London).

@portiamalatjie

MADEYOULOOK
Featured artists

MADEYOULOOK is a Johannesburg based interdisciplinary artist collaborative between Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. The works of MADEYOULOOK take as their point of departure everyday black practices that have either been historically overlooked or deemed inconsequential. These works encourage a re-observation of and de-familiarisation with the everyday of urban South African life.

@madeyoulook_yu4me

made-you-look.net

Makgati Molebatsi
Project Lead

Makgati Molebatsi pursued her passion for visual art and retired from a thirty-year career in Marketing and Communications with public and private organizations to study Art & Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She is the founder of Makgati Molebatsi Art Consultancy, an art consultancy that provides guidance to private collectors, corporates as well as early career artists in navigating the contemporary art world. She has served on the board of Bag Factory Artist Studios and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) and Friends of JAG (Johannesburg Art Gallery). She has also juried and participated in selection committees for Turbine Art Fair, Sasol Signatures Art Award, and the National Art Bank art acquisitions. She has worked as Senior Art Specialist for Aspire Art Auctions based in Johannesburg.

@makmoleart

Veronica King
Project Lead

Veronica King is an accredited facilitator and ICF PCC Professional Certified Coach based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with expertise in the ever-changing world of organisational systems and human dynamics in the business and non- profit sectors. She is the founder and CEO of Emuthini Consulting- a leading Black-owned female-owned company focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion, team and leadership development in South Africa, Africa and internationally for close to two decades. King is a sought-after master facilitator who draws from her extensive professional experience and significant executive leadership accomplishments in business in almost three decades in Southern Africa and the United Kingdom. Most recently, she has been appointed as the Anti-Racism Ombudsperson for MSF – Doctors Without Borders. She is a global part time faculty at Duke CE. She is the Chair of the Board of the Bag Factory Artists Studios, led the BASA mentorship programme and has mentored art organisations such as JAG, Imbali Visual Literacy Project, and the Arts & Culture Trust.

@iamveronicaking

Siwa Mgoboza
Associate Curator

Polymath visual artist, curator, fine art educator, cultural entrepreneur, the founder of SIYABANGENA!, founding director of STILL ARTIST RESIDENCY and a key cultural influencer and social media content creator.

@siyabangena22

@siwamgoboza

Liesl Potgieter
Exhibition Production

As the founder of PLNTH, an arts production management company, Liesl brings a decade of experience to creating unique spatial experiences

PLNTH offers services ranging from production and project management to art consultancy and installation management.

@lieslpotgieter @plnth_

Office 24-7 Architecture
Nabeel Essa and Samkelisiwe Kunene
Exhibition Design

OFFICE 24|7 ARCHITECTURE is an award-winning, research-based, architecture and exhibition design practice based in Johannesburg. The practice was invited to participate in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

@office247_architecture

softwork studio
Visual Identity, Graphic Design and Web Design

softwork is an interdisciplinary art and design practice working within an ecosystem of designers and makers across the fields of art, architecture, design, and feminist and queer organising work. We work in ways that are research-oriented, experimental, collaborative, and speculative and we think deeply on softness as a tool and a methodology in our practice and approach to world building, dreaming and imagining possible futures.

For the Venice Biennale in 2024, softwork’s design team includes artist and designer Naadira Patel, supported by Kirsty de Kock; with additional collaborators Fred Swart of die ateljee on the design of the visual identity, and Skye Quadling of Cornflower Digital on the website.

@softwork.studio
@naadirapatel____
@kirst.psd
@dieateljee
@swart.fred
@_____skye
@cornflowerdigital

Percy Mabandu
Media, Communications and PR

Writer, artist and communications professional who works at the intersection of media and creative industries. Mabandu has held various roles for clients and projects such as Dashiki Dialogues, Joburg International Film Festival, Aspire Art Auctions, Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, FNB Joburg Art Fair and others. Mabandu has also worked as an art journalist across broadcast and print media organizations giving him a unique convergence of skills to advise individuals and organizations on arts and communications strategy.

@percy_mabandu

Dawn Robertson
Events Management

Dawn Robertson started her career in arts education and has been involved in South Africa’s arts, culture, heritage and tourism spaces in an executive management position.

Saul Molobi
Stakeholder relations

Former South African Consul-General to Milan (2012-2016) and former Commissioner for the SA pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

@saulmolobi

PARTNERS, SPONSORS AND PROJECT TEAM

Commissioner
Ambassador Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile

Curator
Portia Malatjie

Artists
MADEYOULOOK: Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho

Associate Curator
Siwa Mgoboza

Artistic Collaborators
Nozuko Mapoma (Arranger and Vocalist); Modise Sekgothe (Vocalist); Lerato Moloto-Moraka (Vocalist); Kamogelo Gwangwa (Vocalist); João Orecchia (Composer and Sound Designer)

Sound Recording and Engineering
Flame Studios; Nkanyiso Martin Ngwenya

Exhibition Design
Office 24-7 Architecture: Nabeel Essa and Samkelisiwe Kunene

Exhibition Production
PLNTH: Liesl Potgieter

Exhibition Installation
eiletz ortigas | architects: Claudia Ortigas and Mateo Eiletz; Digital Fabric: Gavin Olivier, (Audio Visual Consultant; TNCE: Tinus Nel (Structural Engineer); Linspace: Ivan Lin (Acoustic Engineer)

Project Management
Makgati Molebatsi (Project Leader); Veronica King (Project Leader); Dawn Robertson (Travel, Event Management and Schools’ Competition); Saul Molobi (Stakeholder Relations)

Performers
Msaki; SunEl Musician

Visual Identity, Catalogue and Website Design
softwork studio: Naadira Patel, Kirsty de Kock, Fred Swart and Skye Quadling

Communication and PR
Percy Mabandu

Content Creation
Bubblegum Club: Jamal Nxedlana

Photography
Tommaso Gesuato

Copy Editing and Proofreading
Tracy Murinik

Catalogue Authors and Contributors
George Mahashe; uMbuso Nkosi; Tizintizwa (Soumeya Ait Ahmed and Nadir Bouhmouch); Siwa Mgoboza and Portia Malatjie; MADEYOULOOK

Catalogue Image Credits
Masimba Sasa; Ricardo Marcus K; Frac des Pays de la Loire; documenta fifteen

Printing
Sponsored by Sappi, printed by Raff & Cantz Druck GmbH, Riederich, Germany

Principal Sponsor
Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, Republic of South Africa

Additional Support for the South African Pavilion

Sappi

African Infusions

Constitution Hill

In Residence by Pieter Brundyn

Hazendal Wines

STILL ART Residency Program

Threadcraft Sisters2

Research Unit