William Kentridge builds complex multimedia works from charcoal drawings, combining animation, prints, collages, sculptures, tapestries and puppet characters. His animated short films from the late 1980s and 1990s used drawings to dissect South Africa's apartheid regime while conveying personal narratives. The retrospective "Listen to the Echo" spans multiple venues and presents drawings for projection, multi-channel film installations, prints and tapestries that trace Kentridge's artistic development from the late 1970s. Recurring themes include colonialism, social power, responsibility and the lingering effects of centuries of exploitation and oppression in South Africa.
Even though apartheid ended in the 1990s, "the residue of 300 years of exploitation and oppression is still very much with us," Kentridge told DW in 2016 of an era that remains a key theme in his work. The "Listen to the Echo" exhibition traces William Kentridge's artistic development from the late 1970s when deep racial divisions persisted in his homeland. In addition to drawings and films from the renowned "Drawings for Projection" that explored the social and political undercurrents of life in apartheid South Africa, the show includes prints, sculptures, tapestries, and multi-channel film installations.
The retrospective, "Listen to the Echo," is spread across several venues and incorporates multifaceted work and methods that explore colonialism, social power and personal responsibility in South Africa and beyond. Who is William Kentridge? Born in 1955, Kentridge's parents were Jewish anti-apartheid lawyers and human rights campaigners. His father, Sydney Kentridge, represented persecuted black South Africans such as Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
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