Tell Freedom. 15 South African artists

Guest curators: Nkule Mabaso and Manon Braat

The artists in Tell Freedom are inspiring representatives of a generation of South African artists who largely grew up after the abolition of apartheid. They carry this history of violence and injustice with them, but at the same time they aim their arrows toward the future and the rest of the world. In their work they examine South Africa's past and present, commenting on social, political and economic injustices created during the colonial - and apartheid history. In this way, they try to understand their own position in the changing South African society while imagining the future.

The artworks in the exhibition confront visitors with social inequality that exists in South Africa, but also in the Netherlands. Several artists were asked to make new work especially for the exhibition in which they reflect on the future: is a future conceivable in which humanity and equality form starting points instead of exclusion and division? 

Kunsthal KAdE aims with Tell Freedom not to provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary South African art, nor to retell South African history, but rather aims to zoom in on a number of young socially engaged artists. With a peripheral and educational program, the exhibition contributes to the discussion of inequality and the pursuit of an inclusive society, both in South Africa and the Netherlands. A catalog with background information and context has been published to accompany the exhibition. https://www.tellfreedom.co.za/publication

Tell Freedom was created in collaboration with CBK Southeast, the Fifth Season and Thami Mnyele Foundation. They have participants from Tell Freedom residencies offered, sometimes creating artworks in collaboration with local communities. A satellite exhibition is also on view at CBK Zuidoost during the same period. This is dedicated to Nelson Mandela, in the context of his 100th birth anniversary, which will be widely celebrated in Southeast in 2018. 

The exhibition Tell Freedom joins the growing series of country exhibitions at Kunsthal KAdE. Previous exhibitions in this series were: Soft Power Arte Brasil (2016), The Squarest Rectangle, Tom Barman sees all corners of a century of Belgian art (2014), Now Japan (2013),Who More Sci-Fi Than Us, contemporary art from the Caribbean (2012). 

Made possible by: Mondrian Fund, BankGiro Lottery Fund, Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund, Fentener van Vlissingen Fund, Hendrik Muller Fatherland Fund