The artist was announced as the 2024 winner of the prestigious £30,000 prize at a special ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, by Justine Simons, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries for London, on Thursday 16 May 2024.
The influential prize, in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, rewards artists and their projects recognised as having made the most significant contribution to international contemporary photography over the past 12 months. 2024 marks 20 years of partnership between The Photographers’ Gallery and Deutsche Börse.
Lebohang Kganye was awarded the Prize for the exhibition Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you homeat Foam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (17 February – 21 May 2023).
Lebohang Kganye (b. 1990, South Africa) combines photography, sculpture, performance, theatre and moving image into her multifaceted artistic practice.
Exploring the intersections of personal history and ancestry, Kganye draws inspiration from shared oral histories and fictional texts. Growing up in post-apartheid Johannesburg, she delves into South Africa's complex past and reflects on the realities and consequences of apartheid and colonialism.
The nominated exhibition's title, Haufi nyana? meaning ‘too close?’ in Sesotho, one of South Africa's official languages, explores and reimagines notions of home, belonging, heritage and identity. In the large-scale installation on display at The Photographers’ Gallery, Kganye uses silhouettes and life-sized cut-out figures of her family crafted from images in photo albums. The installation considers the impact of her family’s forced migration, due to land acts and apartheid law, including the alteration of their surname. Through symbolic elements, such as a central rotating light representing the Sesotho word for ‘light’, kganya, she symbolises her ancestral heritage.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
ArtDependence Magazine is an international magazine covering all spheres of contemporary art, as well as modern and classical art.
ArtDependence features the latest art news, highlighting interviews with today’s most influential artists, galleries, curators, collectors, fair directors and individuals at the axis of the arts.
The magazine also covers series of articles and reviews on critical art events, new publications and other foremost happenings in the art world.
If you would like to submit events or editorial content to ArtDependence Magazine, please feel free to reach the magazine via the contact page.
