Published December 09, 2021
The Visionary Award is an annual art award to discover, nurture and support creative outputs with special focus to mediums of film and photography. The 2021/2022 version of the award is administered through a collaborative partnership between Tim Hetherington Trust and Javett-UP. Initiated to commemorate the memory of British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, The Visionary Award is designed to foster innovative approaches to visual storytelling by incubating visionary individuals and to offer inspiration to others.
The call for applications, which encouraged experimental submissions, was initiated on 06 July 2021 and closed on 31 August 2021. We received 62 submissions from various parts of the African continent including Ivory Coast, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Togo, Nigeria and Tunisia.
The selection committee tasked with shortlisting five finalists comprised of Paris-based Mozambican artist Euridice Kala, founder and curator of Cairo Photo Week, Marwa Abou Leila, independent curator, Kenyan researcher and filmmaker, Renée Akitelek Mboya, and South African curator and educator, Shenaz Mohomed. The committee shortlisted the following artists: Seretse Moletsane, Loyiso Oldjohn, The Pre-empt Group, Lindokuhle Sobekwa and Sethembile Msezane. The committee was impressed by the ways these artists imbued elements of performance in ways that animated the photographs, those that considered their bodies as an extension of the landscape as well as practices that reflect back to the communities they represent.
The jury committee comprised of Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), Lagos, Candice Jansen, Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg, Jean- -Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi, project coordinator and fundraiser at Picha (Lubumbashi) and Mmutle Arthur Kgokong, who works for the City of Tshwane as a Cultural Officer at the Pretoria Art Museum where he is responsible for the Education and Development Programme.
After much deliberation, the jury decided to award the 2021/2022 Visionary Award to the Preempt Group Collective, a multidisciplinary collective facilitated by Mbali Dhlamini and Phumulani Ntuli. The collective works within the intersection of archives, trans-media and open source technologies from where they engage in the translation research through film and hypermedia often reflecting on analogue and technological image-making. In making this decision, the jury was inspired by the innovative nature of the Preempt Group Collective’s practice in ways that the duo’s work would challenge conventional gallery presentation which may compel audiences to not just look but to also be part of an experience.
“It is clear that the Javett UP has used its strength as a creative leader and as an administrative hub to undertake a unique snapshot overview of the immense talent that exists across the African continent,” says Stephen Mayes of the Tim Heatherington Trust. “We have seen a mix of talent, ideas and imagination that will be aspirational to many on the continent and beyond. The success of the award process is not only in the selection of Preempt Group Collective, but in the excitement and encouragement it will offer to many more – now and into the future.”
Gabi Ngcobo, Curatorial Director at the Javett-UP said, “The opportunity to collaborate with the Tim Hetherington Trust for the 2021/22 Visionary Award has provided the Javett-UP a refreshed magnifying lens into the vastness of creativity from our continent. It has become clear that artists working in lens-based mediums use their work to respond to current societal challenges in ways that are as poetic as they are critical. The Preempt Group represents this critical shift and innovation that is on the edge of rethinking the language of memory and its visualisation.”
*Photo credit by Solomon Moremong.