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Action and live art in Botswana.
Art collectives have a complex history in Botswana. In 1977, the Medu Art Ensemble was founded in the capital city Gaborone by a group of exiled South African “cultural workers” (they preferred the term over “artist”, which felt individualistic and bourgeois.) The group hosted exhibitions, concerts, theatre productions and workshops, aimed at raising awareness about South Africa’s liberation movement. On 14 June 1985, Medu disbanded after a tragic raid by the South African Defense Force killed 12 people. (source: i-D)
“The individual artist is a Western construct. It’s very white. It’s very colonial.” Thero Makepe
Artist and Performance Art Groups
- Artists
- Groups
- TBP Artist Collective
- Thero Makepe
- Kim Karabo Makin
- Thebe Phetogo
- LegakwanaLeo Makgekgenene
- Sade Shoalane (also known as Rrangwane)
- UNRESEARCHED
- Sade Shoalane (also known as Rrangwane)
Information, resources, and more
- Remembering Medu, the South African art collective that fought apartheid –Medu Art Ensemble was based in Gaborone in Botswana between 1979 and 1985. Medu (meaning “roots” in Sepedi) played a key role in shaping South Africa’s culture of struggle against apartheid.
- Who Are the Artists Formerly Known as the Botswana Pavilion? – Meet TBP Artist Collective: the African creatives pushing against Eurocentric Biennale snobbery with their multidisciplinary work.