Thulani Rachia

I am South African artist working in choreography, performance, moving image, performance, music composition and sculpture.
I use these forms to document, map and unpack (hi)stories within my surroundings in a way that emphasizes lived experience as a mode of resistance. Built on extensive research and foregrounding a rediscovery of space, I create works that form a critical dialogue with histories and built environments that support the project of colonialism. Growing up within the spatial legacies of apartheid - an inherited architecture of segregation and control - shapes my understanding of how the built environment can structure social hierarchies.

My work is guided by what I describes as a critical-speculative inquiry in my mother tongue isiZulu: “Siwaguba kanjani amaphupho ethu agqitjwe kulezindonga?” (“How do we excavate the dreams laid to rest in these walls?”). This inquiry enables my research into material legacies and how spaces and materials marked by historical harm might be reimagined, opening possibilities for thinking and making otherwise.

I have held residencies at The Work Room, Hospitalfield, the Talbot Rice Residency Programme, Take Me Somewhere and the National Theatre of Scotland. My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including São Paulo-Arte; Bluecoat, Liverpool, Artists' Moving Image Festival (AMIF); Subsolo Laboratório de Arte, São Paulo; Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art; and Edinburgh Art Festival.