Ecospheres addresses the topic of ecology, the environment, climate and the natural world through the concept of making-with (living with). Divided into three ‘atmospheres’: water, air and earth, encompassing ideas related to narrative, migration and indigenous knowledge, the exhibition is an immersive experience that includes installations of hydroponic plants, oceanic-inspired knitted textile, botanic photography, sound and meditative paintings of migratory birds.
Featured artists: Sutapa Biswas (India/United Kingdom); Ximena Garrido-Lecca(Peru); Mater Iniciativa (Peru); Bronwyn Katz (South Africa); Zayaan Khan & Coila-Leah Enderstein (South Africa); Rithika Merchant (India); Ernesto Neto (Brazil); Zizipho Poswa (South Africa); Jonah Sack (South Africa); Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria/United Kingdom); Russell Scott (South Africa); Michael Tsegaye (Ethiopia)
Special projects: Wolff Architects (South Africa); Rebecca Potterton (South Africa)
Ecospheres forms part of JCAF’s second research theme: Worldmaking. The human drive towards meaning-making leads us to both consciously and unconsciously build our world from social conditioning, scientific rationality, artistic traditions and our own struggle for survival. Worldmaking refers to the ways we collectively make the spaces around us that we inhabit through symbolic practices. JCAF will explore this concept through a trilogy of exhibitions, along with an accompanying series of talks and publications. Explore the virtual tour of the exhibition below.
Find the Ecospheres Reader here.
JCAF Knowledge Talks is a new series of one-on-one live conversations and podcasts. In each session, we learn about a different discipline with an expert in the field, who is based in the Global South. The conversations range from astrophysics and sustainable food practices, to AI and architecture. Through these talks, we explore how closer relationships between art and science can expand the way we see the world. Embodying the ethos of Joaquin Torres García’s School of the South, these talks will expand on interdisciplinary knowledge in the South.
The JCAF Knowledge Talks are held as a monthly live conversation hosted by the JCAF team, in our library, during the Worldmaking exhibitions. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive the email invitations announcing each month’s conversation. Live events have limited capacity, booking is essential.
The JCAF Knowledge Talks podcasts are led by art-critic Ashraf Jamal and recorded in the Foundation’s Reading Room. In our first episode, Ashraf talks to neurologist Dr Kirti Ranchod about the relationship between art and brain health, the concept of neuroaesthetics, and Kirti shares how exposure to art can enhance our brain’s well-being. In episode two, Zayaan Khan speaks to Ashraf about her experience working with food and land justice initiatives, and introduces the notion of ‘seed as relation’, a perspective that encourages using seed as a lens to see and relate with the world and all other living beings. In episode three, Zizipho Poswa reflects on her artistic development, the cultural and historical context of the Eastern Cape and the creative process behind her recent bodies of work. In episode four, Ashraf talks to Ilze and Heinrich Wolff about the concept of an ‘architectural practice of consequence’, they expand on the concept of conviviality, as it applies to spatial practice and knowledge creation in their work as architects in the context of South Africa, and they provide insight into the process of creating JCAF’s Reading Room. In the final episode of season one, Pelonomi Moiloa explains how a socially grounded, Africa-centric perspective shapes the work at Lelapa.AI, the research and product lab she co-founded and leads, and talks to Ashraf about the importance of expanding online access to African languages for building a better future across the continent.
JCAF Knowledge Talks – available now on your favourite streaming platform. Follow to receive new episodes as they are released.
Listen to Episode 1: Dr. Kirti Ranchod, Neuroaesthetics
Listen to Episode 2: Zayaan Khan, Seed as Relation
Listen to Episode 3: Zizipho Poswa, Homage Through Clay
Listen to Episode 4: Ilze & Heinrich Wolff, Building Conviviality
Listen to Episode 5: Pelonomi Moiloa, Future Imaginaries
Image: Isabella Celis, El centro es el origen (The centre is the origin) (detail) from the series Muyus Seeds (2024). Kjolle flower pigment on cabuya fibre paper. © and courtesy Isabella Celis and Mater Iniciativa.
The inaugural edition of the JCAF Journal: Interdisciplinary Knowledge from the South. No. 1 is available online for free. The journal is the culmination of the first three years of research at JCAF under the theme Female Identities in the Global South.
The journal is divided into three sections. The first section presents an epistemological understanding of the creation of knowledge from the South. The second section explores JCAF’s institutional model in relation to the urban and technological landscape of Johannesburg. In the third section, writers, curators, artists and architects respond to our first three exhibitions: Contemporary Female Identities in the Global South (2020), Liminal Identities in the Global South (2021) and Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South (2022).
As a philanthropic institution, JCAF aims actively to create the conditions for generating knowledge in Johannesburg and to be part of the networks of artists, intellectuals, knowledge communities and institutions in the Global South. This journal, in particular, reflects a collective engagement with the artistic practices of women artists, and demonstrates our commitment to establishing new dialogues across disciplines and within the South.
JCAF is a learning institution committed to engaging with the art and ideas of our time, while acknowledging the role of the past.
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As a future-oriented institution, JCAF aims to explore the intersection of art and technology in the 21st century.
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JCAF aims to present pioneering exhibitions of museum quality that are grounded in rigorous research, develop a critical discourse and help to generate knowledge.
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Visiting JCAF to view exhibitions is only permitted during exhibition hours and with prior registration by booking online.
Available now on your favourite streaming platform.
Listen to Episode 1 : Dr. Kirti Ranchod, Neuroaesthetics
Listen to Episode 2: Zayaan Khan, Seed as Relation
Listen to Episode 3: Zizipho Poswa, Homage Through Clay
Listen to Episode 4: Ilze & Heinrich Wolff, Building Conviviality
