Fondation Louis Vuitton
* ZANELE MUHOLI - DAVID GOLDBLATT FROM SOUTH AFRICA

written Mark Ashkins


The Espace Louis Vuitton München is proud to exhibit From South Africa as part of the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s “Hors-les-murs” initiative.

 

This exhibit features David Goldblatt's series of landscape photographs that capture the South African people's complex relationship to their land and explore the meaning of structures in the wake of a new, post-Apartheid national consciousness. Goldblatt's work is dovetailed with photographs from Zanele Muholi's Faces and Phases series consisting of dignified portraits of Black South African lesbians, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. In addition, the exhibition includes Muholi's Somnyama Ngonyama series, in which the artist uses self-portraits to evoke stereotypes about Africa and femininity, in order to reverse and reject clichés and archetypes related to their own experience.

 
 
Portrait of Photographer Artist David Goldblatt at Fondation LOUIS VUITTON München LE MILE Magazine

David Golblatt
© Lily Goldblatt

 
 

.key info
*ZANELE MUHOLI - DAVID GOLDBLATT FROM SOUTH AFRICA

The "Hors-les-murs" (Beyond the Walls) program was created by the Fondation with the goal of reaching publics outside of France. The first chapter of the program was an architecture exhibition dedicated to Frank Gehry, followed by exhibitions of works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton Collection.


// on display til January 08, 2023

 
Photographer Artist David Goldblatt at Fondation LOUIS VUITTON München LE MILE Magazine

© David Goldblatt

 

David Goldblatt was born in South Africa in 1930. For sixty years until his death in 2018, he documented the country's buildings, people, and scenery. In 1998, he became the first South African artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2001, a collection of his work from throughout his career, titled "David Goldblatt Fifty-One Years," toured galleries and museums in the United States. Goldblatt also had solo exhibitions at the Jewish Museum and the New Museum, both located in New York City.

 
 
Portrait of Photographer Artist Zanele Muholi at Fondation LOUIS VUITTON München LE MILE Magazine

© Zanele Muholi

 
 

The Fondation Louis Vuitton, which opened in October 2014 in the Bois de Boulogne, has given Paris a major new cultural and artistic institution devoted to the arts. The Fondation also embodies the commitment of LVMH – and Louis Vuitton in particular – to corporate philanthropy in support of the arts and creative endeavors.

 

Zanele Muholi is an artist and visual activist from Umlazi, South Africa. In their early series, Muholi captured moments of love and intimacy, as well as images that speak to the ongoing violence against LGBTQIA+ communities in South Africa, despite the promise of equality in the 1968 Constitution.

These images, coupled with first-hand testimonials, create an archive of a community of people who put their lives at risk to stand up to discrimination. Another significant series in their oeuvre is Brave Beauties, which celebrates the strength of trans women, gender non-conforming and non-binary individuals. With the Somnyama Ngonyama series, Muholi also turns the camera on themself to create compelling and introspective images that touch on topics like work, racism, Eurocentrism, and sexual politics. Muholi’s work is currently being exhibited at several locations, for example, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

 
 

credits
(c) DAVID GOLDBLATT & ZANELE MUHOLI (Fondation LOUIS VUITTON)