MPHO MATSIPA /// On Spaces of Possibilities and African Mobilities

In this interview by Léopold Lambert, Mpho Matsipa describes the spirit and contents of the exhibition she curated in 2018. Entitled “African Mobilities: This is not a Refugee Camp Exhibition,” this powerfully-curated gathering of artworks provides the bases of a conversation about the notions of mobilities and temporalities in the context of the African continent, from the mind-expanding maps of the Chimurenga Library and the cartographic entanglements by Dana Whariba, Thembinkosi Goniwe and Nolan Oswald Dennis to the futurist vision of Olalekan Jeyifous and Wale Lawal.

Mpho Matsipa received her PhD in Architecture from UC Berkeley. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Columbia GSAPP and faculty in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a researcher at WiSER and co-investigator on an Andrew Mellon research grant on Urban Mobilities. She has written critical essays on art and architecture and curated several exhibitions and discursive platforms, including the South Africa Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2008), African Mobilities at the Architecture Museum, Pinakotheque Moderne in Munich (2018),which will travel in 2019-2020  and Studio-X Johannesburg (2014-2016).