Crossing Night is a large-scale exhibition initiative that unites contemporary art and artists from Southern Africa with a rich Mexican cultural context through a programme of exhibitions, residencies, publications and a conference.

Comprising 5 exhibitions, an artists’ residency programme, a community-based educational programme, and a conference, Crossing Night is the first large-scale exploration of the historical links between Southern Africa and Mexico through the lens of contemporary art.

Crossing Night looks comparatively at societal relationships with death in Southern Africa and in Mexico as an entry point to a broader search for shared ways of relating to history in the present in these two postcolonial regions.

The project touches on the fragility and finitude of human experience, the relationship between violence and death, the ethics of how we relate to corpses, our rituals of life, death and the afterlife, our connections with our ancestors, and how our will for form is at the last instance a will to be remembered.

Through creating a substantial context for transregional reflection, Crossing Night illuminates the parallel histories and ontologies that developed across these two regions which share the history of the transatlantic slave trade, and today face ongoing fascisms of different kinds.

Participating Artists: Tiago Borges, Steven Cohen, Marlene Dumas, Dumile Feni, Kendell Geers, Jared Ginsburg, David Goldblatt, Georgina Gratrix, Haroon Gunn Sallie, Dan Halter, Nicholas Hlobo, Jackson Hlungwani, Pieter Hugo, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Moshekwa Langa, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Ernest Mancoba, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Samson Mudzunga, Zanele Muholi, Simphiwe Ndzube, Antonio Ole, Athi Patra-Ruga, Jo Ractliffe, Robin Rhode, Cinga Samson, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Johannes Segogela, Penny Siopis, James Webb & Portia Zvavahera.

With the support of the Government of the State of Oaxaca, Crossing Night decentralizes Mexico’s public cultural programming, creating an international cultural presence beyond the metropolitan centres. This initiative recognizes importance of diverse economies, ways of using space, and practices of organizing community.

Crossing Night is an initiative of the Idris Naim Foundation and the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico. The residency programme launches on 1 October and the exhibitions open across participating venues from 4 -10 November. Exhibitions will be on view until 5 February 2019

All events and exhibitions are free and open to the public

VENUES:

Centro Cultural Santo Domingo 
Centro Cultural y Académico San Pablo
Centro Fotografico Alvarez Bravo 
Centro de las Artes San Agustín, Etla
Museo de Arte Prehispánico Rufino Tamayo 
lnstituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO)

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www.idrisnaim.com