Africa's foremost artistic luminaries on exhibit at Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town

Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town, and Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF) collaborate for a second time in the name of art. Opened on Tuesday 23 May, “An Endless Night” curated by Anelisa Mangcu rallies 11 of the continent’s art luminaries to explore geographic, gender, and historical specificities within the framework of time. A union of two South African cultural institutions, the partnership aims to showcase Africa through a distinctive lens, platforming African visual arts and culture to an audience beyond the continent’s borders.

Having launched in February 2023 with “Today, I wish to talk to your dreams”, the maiden exhibition, curated by Amogelang Maledu, showcased the work of 18 contemporary African artists who contemplated ideas of African futures through African dreaming. Presented throughout the grounds of the Mount Nelson Hotel, these exhibitions pair thought-provoking contemporary artworks with the history and heritage of the iconic hotel.

This time drawing from 11 of Africa’s leading artists, 20 multimedia works (with 19 available to purchase) are presented under the banner of time. “We fill up our time with tasks, purpose, duty and creating memories, in hopes of taking our subjective existence seriously with intrinsic value. This way, we create value by affirming time and living it, and not simply obsessing over its passing,” explains Curator Anelisa Mangcu. While we undeniably experience time in the same order, from past, through present to future, Mangcu notes that how we experience it is not linear due to the subjectivity of our lived experiences. She adds that “what is similar is our desire to prolong our experience of time, and our attempt to find ourselves closer to a climactic moment in our narrative.”

From Cape Town to Enugu, Nairobi to Johannesburg, the artists include internationally acclaimed sculptor and conceptualist Mary Sibande, photographer and multimedia artist Trevor Stuurman, together with Kimathi Mafafo, Mongezi Gum, Shakil Solanki, Ayogu Kingsley, Nedia Were, Feni Chulumanco and Buqaqawuli Thamani Nobakada. Through their independent lenses and mediums, these artists will investigate the passage of time that constitutes our lives.

“While Belmond has long established itself as a supporter in the international arts community, it’s pertinent that as Mount Nelson Hotel embarks on its journey into the African art and discursive landscape, we do so alongside and in collaboration with the largest contemporary art fair in Africa (ICTAF),” says Mount Nelson General Manager Tiago Sarmento.

With the launch of their maiden exhibition partnership in February 2023, this subsequent show has been highly anticipated among contemporary art aficionados and has become a highlight on the Cape Town cultural calendar. “We wish the incumbent curator Anelisa Mangcu well with her exhibition, knowing that through this event she is broadening horizons, and understanding, for the participating artists, and for the city itself,” says ICTAF Director Laura Vincenti.

*“An Endless Night” will be open to the public from Tuesday 23 May until Thursday 31 August at Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town. For an insider perspective on the artworks and their creators, you can book a guided walk with curator Anelisa Mangcu.