Now in its sixth iteration, the Zeitz MOCAA Atelier residency programme welcomes Berni Searle as its latest resident for the next eight months. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1964, Searle's personal experiences of growing up against the backdrop of an apartheid state, has deeply influenced her work and artistic expression.
Titled On Site, the residency opened 20 June 2024 and runs through 2 March 2025. Searle’s practice spans photography, video, performance, and installation and offers visitors unique proximity to her work. Key selections from previous bodies of work, as well as sketches, objects, and publications, are on view, whilst she develops new ideas in-situ.
The spaces of the Atelier house distinct functions, including a dedicated room where visitors can view a substantial collection of her moving image works. The galleries also provide space for conversation and rest, an area with photographic backdrops and a central area for working on larger scale installation ideas. Searle’s practice is often project based, assembling skills and various expertise to realise works in different sites as needed.
The Atelier is a moment for the artist to work and think continuously and consistently in a formal studio environment and connects her to museum visitors from diverse backgrounds.
“The city of Cape Town is central to my practice, which is connected to the experiences and narratives of its people, its histories, and poetics, both troubled and transcendent. I draw from my own biography, as an inhabitant of the city,” says Searle. “The residency is a celebration of this relationship to place and On Site situates me within my context as an affirmation; with the studio functioning as a site for reflection, observation, and play,” she adds.
The Zeitz MOCAA Atelier is an experimental platform and residency located on Level 2 of the museum and occupies a multi-gallery of 400 square metres. In addition to providing an exploratory space for Cape Town-based artists, the Atelier is open to the public, allowing visitors to Zeitz MOCAA access and insight into the artists’ modes of production and processes.
Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by Gucci, Mellon Foundation, and BMW Group South Africa.
