Structures is the second exhibition under the Worldmaking theme, following Ecospheres. A structure can be understood as either material or immaterial. It might represent a body of knowledge, a social framework or an infrastructural system treated as a single entity and held together by a plan, a pattern or a guiding logic. The Structures exhibition considers the human in relation to the built environment, and brings together artists and architects from the South who explore how space, place, and race intersect in both tangible and intangible structures. Structures reflects on how materials carry meaning and how people themselves can act as forms of infrastructure.
At the core of these concerns is the topic of vernacular architecture. How have indigenous forms of artistry, tradition and knowledge contributed to an African form of architecture and to practices of everyday life? This question is framed obliquely via three interconnecting sections that function as curatorial threads throughout the exhibition of works by artists and architects:
Featured artists: Igshaan Adams (ZA); Kader Attia (DZ/ FR); Kamyar Bineshtarigh (IR/ZA); Jellel Gasteli (TN/FR); David Goldblatt (ZA); Kiluanji Kia Henda (AO); MADEYOULOOK (ZA); Matri-Archi(tecture) (ZA/CH); Hélio Oiticica (BR); Hajra Waheed (IN)
Special projects: Stephen Hobbs (ZA); Rebecca Potterton (ZA); Wolff Architects (ZA)
Read the publications: Exhibition Guide and Structures Reader.
Explore a virtual tour and read more about the exhibition below.
The first section of the exhibition presents the relationship between space and subjectivities through translation, memory and migration. It does so by bringing together four artists whose work speaks directly to movements to and from specific locations: Algeria, Tunisia, France, Iran, India and South Africa. There is something fleeting in these structures, and yet they are anchors of a determined conscience: a door which might not exist, a wall with traces of labour in a workshop, an attempt to capture the movement of the sun and a city made out of couscous.
Installation views of Section 1: Situatedness | Kader Attia, Untitled (Ghardaïa) (2009). © Kader Attia; Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Panel Beaters Wall III (2023). © Kamyar Bineshtarigh; Hajra Waheed, This Is Not a Door, Just a Sense There Might Be One at Some Point 1-2 (2019). © the artist; Jellel Gasteli, Untitled (Blanche No. III), Untitled (Blanche No. V) and Untitled (Blanche No. XXIV) (1996). © Jellel Gasteli.
This section of the exhibition explores the tensions and paradoxes between formal and informal structures and buildings in Southern Africa and the South. Across different periods and locations, buildings have served as instruments to display power. In South Africa, this was evident during the apartheid era (1948–1994) and the cultural nationalism seen in monuments, state buildings and Dutch Reformed Churches built during that time. This relates closely to the introduction of modernity as a political ethos and modernist architecture on the African continent and the Global South, a subject debated by cultural theorists and philosophers alike. In contrast to official state architecture, informal structures and dwellings such as shacks in South Africa and favelas in Brazil are prevalent.
Installation views of Section 2: Infrastructures | photographs by David Goldblatt: Mineworkers’ bunks in the abandoned Chinese compound of the Simmer and Jack Mine, Germiston (July 1965); House near Phuthaditjhaba, Qwa Qwa, Free State, South Africa (1 May 1989); Gereformeerde Kerk (Reformed Church), inaugurated on 13 June 1959, Totiusdal, Waverley, Pretoria, Transvaal (25 September 1983); Dutch Reformed Church, Quellerina, Johannesburg, Gauteng (Transvaal) (3 November 1986); Monument to the Afrikaans language, inaugurated on 10 October 1975, Paarl (5 April 1992); Voortrekker Monument, dedicated in 1968, Winburg, Free State (27 December 1990) © David Goldblatt Legacy Trust; Matri-Archi(tecture), Building Africa: The State of Things! (2023). © Matri-Archi(tecture) and African State Architecture; Kiluanji Kia Henda, Structures of Survival (Namibe Desert) (2022). © the artist; Hélio Oiticica, PN 28 “Nas Quebradas” (1979). © César and Claudio Oiticica.
The third section critically examines the notion of the ‘vernacular’ by establishing dialogues between cultural heritage and blackness. In both urban and rural contexts, societal frameworks influence structures that reveal distinct organisational patterns. The spatial dynamics of inside/outside and inclusion/exclusion can unveil tensions in both urban and rural environments yet not always through formal architecture or structures.
Installation views of Section 3: Typologies | MADEYOULOOK, Dinokana (2024). © MADEYOULOOK; Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (2025). © Igshaan Adams.
Igshaan Adams (1982–) was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He graduated from the College of Cape Town with a National Certificate in Art and Design in 2003 and obtained a Diploma in Fine Art from the Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town in 2009. Selected solo exhibitions include Lynloop, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2024); Primêre Wentelbaan, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2023); Kicking Dust, Kunsthalle Zurich (2021); and Getuie, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2020). Notable group exhibitions include Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London (2024); Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstractions, LACMA, Los Angeles (2023); The Milk of Dreams, Venice Biennale (2022); and Matters of Concern, La Verrière, Brussels (2019).
Kader Attia (1970–) was born in Dugny, France and lives and works in Berlin and Algiers. Attia has received degrees from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré (1993) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (1998) in Paris, and from La Escola Massana Arte i Disseny (1994) in Barcelona. Selected solo exhibitions include Kader Attia: On Silence, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2021); Kader Attia: Remembering the Future, Kunsthaus Zürich (2021) and Kader Attia: Héroes Heridos, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong (2018). Attia was the recipient of the Fundació Joan Miró’s Joan Miró Prize and the Yanghyun Foundation’s Yanghyun Prize in 2017, and the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2016. His work is in notable collections such as the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; the Deutsche Bank Collection; and the Gwangju Biennial Foundation.
Kamyar Bineshtarigh (1996–) was born in Semnan, Iran and lives and works in Cape Town. He holds a Diploma in Fine Art from the Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town (2019). Select solo exhibitions include 9 Hopkins, Southern Guild, Cape Town (2023); Uncover, Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2022); Pilgrim, as part of the Cubicle Series, Everard Read/Circa Gallery, Cape Town (2019); and group exhibitions Mother Tongues, Southern Guild, Los Angeles (2024) and Home Strange Home, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh (2022). Bineshtarigh was awarded the Bowmans Young Artists Award, Norval Foundation (2022) and the Simon Gerson Prize, University of Cape Town (2021).
Jellel Gasteli (1958–) is a photographer based in Tunis, Tunisia. He graduated from the National School of Photography, Arles. Select solo exhibitions include Photographies, Selma Feriani Gallery, Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia (2018); Carnets, Le Salon H, Paris (2018); Rock the Kasbah: Dégagements … la Tunisie un an après, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012) and group exhibitions Art Basel Hong Kong, Selma Feriani Gallery, Hong Kong (2019) and the Biennale des Photographes du Monde Arabe Contemporain, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2017). Gasteli’s work is in notable collections such as the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf.
David Goldblatt (1930–2018) was born in Randfontein, Johannesburg. Select solo exhibitions include David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, the Art Institute of Chicago (2023); Structures of Dominium and Democracy, Centre George Pompidou, Paris (2018); and Photographs 1948–2018, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2018). Goldblatt was awarded the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture, France (2016) and the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center for Photography, New York (2013); and received an Honorary Doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute (2011). Goldblatt’s photographs are featured in notable collections such as the South African National Gallery, Cape Town; the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Stephen Hobbs (1972–) is a Johannesburg-based artist, public art curator and arts advocate. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (1993). Selected solo exhibitions include Man Shouting in the Distance, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg (2024); Ghost Ships, Special Project FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (2015); and JAG/SNAG, Johannesburg Art Gallery (2014). Select group exhibitions include: Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (2015) and Johannesburg in Print: Ubuntu Festival, Carnegie Hall, New York (2014). Hobbs’s work is featured in notable collections such as the New York Public Library; the Smithsonian Library; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Kiluanji Kia Henda (1979–) is an Angolan photographer and filmmaker based between Luanda, Angola and Lisbon, Portugal. Selected solo exhibitions include Memories of a Poisoned River, Natural History Museum/Jahmek Contemporary Art, Luanda (2023); There are days that I leave my heart at home, Galleria Fonti, Naples (2022); and A Healing Path for Phantom Pain, Goodman Gallery, London (2022). Group exhibitions include A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate Modern, London (2023); 14th Gwangju Biennial (2023) and Back to Earth, Serpentine Gallery, London (2022). Kia Henda’s work is featured in notable collections such as the Tate Modern Collection of Contemporary Art, London; the Fondazione di Venezia Public Collection, Venice; and the Kadist Foundation, Paris/San Francisco.
MADEYOULOOK is a Johannesburg-based interdisciplinary artist collaborative founded in 2009 by Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. MADEYOULOOK engages different approaches focused primarily on intertextual installations, gatherings, discursive programmes, research and publishing. The collective has created public interventions such as Bokoni, Mpumalanga, Johannesburg (2018–ongoing); and Mafolofolo, documenta fifteen, Johannesburg and Kassel (2022). Selected exhibitions include Quiet Ground, the South African Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2024); documenta fifteen, Kassel (2022); and Non-Monuments Programme: Stories Edition, Artworks TO, Toronto (2022).
Matri-Archi(tecture) is an association based between South Africa and Switzerland that hosts a network of spatial practitioners dedicated to the development of African spatial education, offering a site for artistic collaboration through design, art and architectural research projects. Matri-Archi(tecture) was founded in 2017 by Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk, who seeded and developed the collective. Over the years, Matri- Archi(tecture) has had many different and inspiring spatial practitioners as contributors to the collective.
Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980) was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Selected solo exhibitions include Hélio Oiticica: Spatial Relief and Drawings, 1955–59, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York (2018); Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2017); and Hélio Oiticica: The Great Labyrinth, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2013–14). Select group exhibitions include A Tale of Two Worlds. Experimental Latin American Art in Dialogue with the MMK Collection 1940s–1980s, MMK Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2017–18) and Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires (2018); Memories of Development: Art and the Decolonial Turn in Latin America, 1960–1985, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2017); and What Comes After Sudden Death, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2015). Oiticica was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, New York (1970) and an Artist-in-Residence, Sussex University, Brighton (1969).
Rebecca Potterton (1996–) is a freelance illustrator based in Johannesburg. She has a BA (Honours) in History from the University of the Witwatersrand (2020). In her capacity as illustrator and researcher for Counterspace Studio, Potterton illustrated for Architecture’s Now, Near, and Next published by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Serpentine Pavilion, London (2021); and the installation After Image by Sumayya Vally/Counterspace as part of Liminal Identities in the Global South, JCAF (2021). She created the graphic mural for the entrance of the Ecospheres exhibition, which drew inspiration from the intricate ecosystems intertwined with water, air and earth, and has been commissioned to create a new mural for the Structures exhibition.
Hajra Waheed’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, video, sound, sculpture and installation. Her work investigates the power structures that shape lives, focusing on the trauma and displacement caused by colonial and state violence. With a distinctive visual language and unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle, and a radical politics of resistance and resilience. Recent exhibitions include Creative Time, New York (2025); 36th São Paulo Biennial (2025); Fragmentos, Bogotá (2025); the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2024); the Kiran Nadar Museum, Delhi (2024); State of Concept, Athens (2023); 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023); HKW, Berlin (2023); CAM, St. Louis (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Portikus, Frankfurt (2020); Lahore Biennial 02 (2020); British Museum, London (2019); the Power Plant, Toronto (2019); 57th Venice Biennale (2017); 11th Gwangju Biennale (2026); BALTIC Centre, Gateshead (2016); and KW, Berlin (2015).
Wolff Architects is a design studio concerned with developing an architectural practice of consequence through the mediums of design, advocacy, research and documentation. The Wolff team is led by Ilze and Heinrich Wolff who work collaboratively with a group of committed and engaged architects, creative practitioners and administrators. Heinrich Wolff has received many awards including the Daimler Chrysler Award for Architecture (2007) and the Lubetkin Award (2005). In 2011 he was elected Designer of the Future by the Wouter Mikmak Foundation. Ilze Wolff has a Master of Philosophy in Heritage and Public Culture from the African Studies Unit, University of Cape Town. She co-founded Open House Architecture in 2007, a transdisciplinary research practice which she continues to direct parallel to Wolff.
