Bokamoso (“the future” in Sotho language) represents the visual counterpart to a residency between South African music collective The Brother Moves On, a multi-genre performative art project, and Slovenian pianist and producer Bowrain. The collective which has gained international renown for their blending of musical, political and art boundaries took a special interest in Bowrain who they met thanks to the Druga Godba festival which hosted them in May 2018.
Photographer Tjaša Gnezda’s collaboration with The Brother Moves On began in the end of 2018 when Gnezda travelled to Johannesburg where she was granted access to shoot a music documentary about the innovative and exquisitely clashing music approaches of the residency’s participants.
Gnezda’s proximity to the creative life of the residency resulted in a series of portraits that capture vibrant personalities, hierarchies, light piano resonance, gentrification and melancholic realities in Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct. Maboneng (a Sotho word meaning “place of light”) is a former no-go zone that has been transforming into a creative hub and urban attraction in an unpredictable and socially segregated city.
The separation is shown through the environment’s colourfulness and the graphics of its subjects, which coincide with the expression of The Brother Moves On in their historical, political, social and creative perspectives. Gnezda sheds light on the difficulties and hopefulness of an unheard voice for a brighter future.
Contrary to media agenda, she displays South Africa in a brighter perspective. The artist captures both medium, photography and video. The video in collaboration with Luka Slak, a raw technological installation eloquently points out the outbursts of documentary film in the making, where emotional split reaches additional dynamism of dimensions. At the same time, at the side of the exhibition, she dedicates the existence of the Music Festival Druga Godba in the form of announcing posters over the years.
The exhibition was created in partnership with Zavod Druga Godba.