The Stellenbosch Triennale returns in 2025

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The brainchild of the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust (SOST), a non-profit organisation and supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund, the Triennale that is free to the public is an exploration of art, community and existence under the evocative theme by sociologist, sangoma and chief curator Khanyisile Mbongwa titled, 'Ba’Zinzile: A Rehearsal for Breathing'.

The Stellenbosch Triennale debuted in 2020 with a bold vision: to elevate Stellenbosch, as a premier destination for multidisciplinary art in Africa and to create a platform where public art and creativity engage critically with society.

The inaugural event set a high standard with its array of provocative installations and performances that challenged visitors to rethink their surroundings and themselves.

Building on this foundation, the 2025 edition seeks to push boundaries even further.

As Mbongwa explains, “For this Triennale I want us to enter into a rehearsal space as a way of imagining how we can co-create in the real world, how exhibition making in itself is a rehearsal space for the things we want to do. And as such, I have invited artists to make their work on-site over a 10 day period that can be recycled or disintegrated back to land after the Triennale so as to minimise my carbon footprint by not transporting artworks back and forth. In this way, we get to enact a playfulness in the making and witnessing the work.”

This commitment to sustainability and process forms part of the curators practice of Care & Cure.

Mbongwa - a Stellenbosch university alumnus who works within public realm, interventions and interdisciplinary practices - in this project heeded the call from her ancestors to mediate on themes that explore spirit, breath and improvisation.

“I am in the labour of my purpose. My work is always expansive and a deep-time conversation with amadlozi (ancestors), uNkulunkulu (God/Source), and Abahlali (the collective of beings); as I move through and in the world, I’m invited into different geographical locations and called into spiritual ancestral indigenous conversations,” explains Mbongwa.

A tradition of artistic innovation

The inaugural Stellenbosch Triennale took place at the start of the COovid-19 global pandemic, which cut the Triennale’s duration short and changed many lives.

Project director and trustee, Andi Norton, draws parallels to this year’s exhibition sub-theme of rehearsal.

“We had no idea that it would only be open for such a short time in 2020, we had worked hard and sacrificed so much and to have it all be shut down so soon was devastating. It was
only after a year or two that we could start exploring doing another one.”

Norton continues, “Only now can we look back on it and see the incredible rehearsal space that it was for us. Through the theme, the curator is giving us, the organisers and artists, permission to experiment and play.”

The theme, Ba’Zinzilw: A Rehearsal for Breathing, invites artists and audiences alike to contemplate the act of breathing — both a fundamental physical process and a metaphor
for resilience and survival.

“Breathing in states of duress, breathing through wounds,” reflects Mbongwa in her curatorial statement, “we persist, we insist, we improvise our
existence in a world that often feels like it’s losing its breath.”

Informed by the Nguni concept of UkuU’Zinza — being grounded and calm — the theme explores stillness as a mechanism for survival, a strategy for imagination, and an act of aliveness. In a time when breathlessness is a global experience, the Triennale positions itself as a space for reflection, recovery, and preparation for a different future.

A dynamic and interactive experience

Unlike traditional art exhibitions, the Stellenbosch Triennale 2025 will be a living, breathing entity, constantly evolving over its two-month duration. The intention is to invite our visitors to enter a rehearsal space with us, where some works will exist in a space of improvisation, some in the space of composition and intervention, others in exploration - in the ways we negotiate our breath and ultimately our aliveness.

Assistant curator, Dr Mike Mavura adds, “We wanted the artists to think of breath in multiple ways in relation to the human body and to start to think of breath in expanded ways; what
happens when you breathe deeply? What happens when you are short of breath? And then, what happens when you can’t breathe?” This conceptual framework will be evident in the
diverse array of mediums on display, from visual art and sculpture to sound installations, performance, and dance.

For more, go to https://www.stellenboschtriennale.com/