Honouring the past and reimagining the future, two artists at the Stellenbosch Triennale are focused on sparking social change through art.
The Stellenbosch Triennale, which was founded to highlight contemporary African art, has become a platform for exploring innovative artistic practices that respond to global and local issues. This year, sustainability takes centre stage, not only in environmental terms but also in how artists preserve and reinterpret history, culture and traditions. Through immersive exhibits, performances and installations, the event provides an opportunity for emerging and established voices to engage in dialogue, reinforcing the role of art in shaping new narratives.
This year, Sisonke Papu and Manyaku Mashilo bring unique perspectives on sustainability — Sisonke through sound and indigenous knowledge and Manyaku through ancestral memory and site specific installations. Their work reflects the Triennale’s broader themes of honouring the past while imagining the future, emphasising how art can spark critical conversations on pressing issues such as climate change, social justice and cultural preservation. For both artists, sustainability is deeply tied to memory, community and the preservation of indigenous knowledge. Their work at the Triennale challenges erasure and reintroduces ancestral wisdom into contemporary artistic practices.
Sisonke Papu
Sisonke’s art merges traditional healing, storytelling and music, creating a bridge between generations while reclaiming sound as a living archive of life. Using instruments made from natural materials such as wood, bone and calabash, he revives sonic traditions passed down through generations. ‘We are not simply playing sounds — we are reviving and sustaining sonic lineages,’ he says. His commitment to sustainability is evident in his use of upcycled materials, repurposing metal scraps, bones and wood to give new life to forgotten objects. Sisonke's work also aligns with indigenous perspectives of seeing materials as part of an interconnected system.
Through his transmedia agency, ISPILI Network, he shares this wisdom with younger generations via workshops, residencies and multimedia projects to empower artists, healers and cultural practitioners. ‘Indigenous knowledge does not belong in archives alone; it belongs in the body, in practice and in the everyday rituals of how we relate to the land, spirit and each other,’ he says.
Manyaku Mashilo
Rooted in cultural preservation and spatial memory, Manyaku explores ways of materialising ancestral knowledge systems, rituals and symbologies that risk being lost in contemporary society. Her work is both a homage to and a reimagining of the past, allowing intergenerational wisdom to persist in new forms.
For the Triennale, Manyaku created a site-specific installation that reinterprets traditional gathering spaces. She was inspired by childhood memories of her grandmother’s homestead in rural Limpopo, where women would gather in a roofless circular structure, called mafuri, to cook meals and share wisdom. ‘I wanted to recreate this space and the sacred femininity it held for me,’ she says.
The installation is built with found sticks from the local area, with mud, cement and red clay applied to the frame. Inside, a mural from her ongoing series Dithapelo tša boMma depicts matriarchal figures in white ritual garments, moving through vast cosmological landscapes in a dance of ancestral connection. Manyaku sees sustainability as a means of cultural repair. ‘I hope my work, in some way, is able to sustain the ancestral link to our lineage, practices and heritage,’ she says.
Artists such as Sisonke and Manyaku prove that sustainability in art extends beyond materials: it is about safeguarding knowledge, stories and ways of being. Sustainability is not just an environmental concern, but a cultural imperative. Their work at the Triennale underscores how artistic practices can challenge erasure, strengthen community ties and imagine sustainable futures that honour the past. They invite audiences to rethink how traditions evolve and to recognise that sustainability is about ensuring continuity, adaptability and connection across generations.
Through art exhibits such as these, the Triennale continues to demonstrate that art is more than a reflection of society; it is a force for both preservation and change.
