Lebohang Kganye

Meets Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

Lebohang Kganye (*1990 in Johannesburg / South Africa) is a visual artist and photographer living and working in Johannesburg. She gained her first experience in photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 2009 and completed the Advanced Photography Programme in 2011. She received a Diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg in 2014 and is currently pursuing her Masters in Fine Arts at Witwatersrand University in South Africa. In 2022 she was one of three contemporary artists representing South Africa at the Venice Biennale.Artist ProgrammeArtist Meets Archive
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Lebohang Kganye
Lebohang Kganye © Lerato Ntombela

Kganye, who is best known for her photographic work, often combines the archival and the performative with a practice that focuses on storytelling and memory as it plays out in the familial experience. Her ongoing interest in the materiality of photography is variously explored through the use of sculpture, performance and moving images. While reflecting a particular South African experience, she also critically examines oral traditions and memory as an unreliable repository.

The starting point for Lebohang Kganye's project is a collection of images by the German painter and photographer Marie Pauline Thorbecke, which are kept in the archives of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum. Thorbecke undertook an expedition to Cameroon with her husband Franz from 1911-1913 on behalf of the German Colonial Society. Some 110 years later, Kganye is travelling through the country again on these tracks and weaving memories, impressions and narratives from a female perspective into a video work and a spatial installation.

Lebohang Kganye at the Photoszene-Festival 2023

Lebohang Kganye was interviewed by students in the master's programme "Photography Studies and Research", which is led by Prof. Dr. Steffen Siegel. She talks about her artistic practice and her residency project.

Interview with Lebohang Kganye


More about Lebohang Kganye:
https://www.lebohangkganye.co.za
https://www.instagram.com/lebohang_kganye
 

 



 

Lebohang Kganye visits the archive of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum

Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

Das Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Kulturen der Welt in Köln ist das einzige städtische ethnologische Museum in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Das Museum besitzt eine der zehn größten und bedeutendsten ethnografischen Sammlungen Deutschlands. Die Sammlungen umfassen mehr als 165.000 Objekte aus Ozeanien, Afrika, Asien und den Amerikas. Das Historische Fotoarchiv im Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum beherbergt rund 100.000 fotografische Objekte von der Frühzeit der Fotografie bis in die 2000er Jahre und aus nahezu allen Regionen der Erde. Aufnahmen von Kolonialbeamt:innen, Missionar:innen, Forschungsreisenden oder Abenteurer:innen finden sich hier ebenso wie Aufnahmen aus Fotostudios rund um den Globus, Bild-Postkarten, Fotograf:innennachlässe oder Aufnahmen und Alben aus Privatbesitz.

Das Archiv ist Bestandteil der Fotografischen Sammlung. Seine Gründung wird datiert auf das Jahr 1899, die Bestände sind zeitlich und räumlich eng an die koloniale Expansion des deutschen Kaiserreichs geknüpft. Seit der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts spielte Fotografie eine maßgebliche Rolle: Sie diente der kolonialwissenschaftlichen Forschung, der offiziellen wie persönlichen Dokumentation kolonialer Erfahrung und nicht zuletzt der Verbreitung kolonialer Haltungen und Vorstellungen, die teils bis heute Klischees und Vorurteile erzeugen. Fotografie aus kolonialen Kontexten ist gegenwärtig wichtiger Bestandteil von Diskursen um Repräsentation und Teilhabe.

Artist Meets Archive Exhibitions & Events at the Photoszene-Festival 2023
  •   © buerofuerkunstdokumentation
    Artist Meets Archive 01

    Yokohama Souvenirs

    Naoya Hatakeyama

    Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln
    12.05. – 05.11.2023

  •   © buerofuerkunstdokumentation
    Artist Meets Archive 02

    The Opening. an institution, a depot, the boxes

    Pablo Lerma

    NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln
    12.05. – 18.06.2023

  •   © buerofuerkunstdokumentation
    Artist Meets Archive 03

    Ghosts@Work

    Lilly Lulay

    Rheinisches Bildarchiv zu Gast in der Handwerkskammer zu Köln
    12.05. – 11.06.2023

  • Artist Meets Archive 04

    Shall you Return Everything, but the Burden

    Lebohang Kganye

    Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
    12.05. – 05.10.2023

  • Artist Meets Archive

    Dates & Special Events

    Artist Meets Archive

    Artist Meets Archive Museen
    10.05. – 21.05.2023

  • Artist Meets Archive

    Research Meets Artist

    Dialogue Symposium on the Third Edition of Artist Meets Archive

    Rheinisches Bildarchiv im Historischen Archiv

  • Artist Meets Archive

    International Museum Day 21th May 2023

    Artist Meets Archive

    Artist Meets Archive Museen
    21.05.2023

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