The Johannesburg Biennales

This chapter examines the 1995 and 1997 Johannesburg Biennials, held in the early post-apartheid South Africa, as critical sites for decolonial inquiry into global exhibition frameworks and postcolonial cultural production. The first edition, led by Christopher Till and Lorna Ferguson, sought to reintegrate South Africa into international art circuits following years of cultural isolation due to boycott, yet it revealed tensions between ambitions for global visibility and demands for local representation. The second edition, curated by Okwui Enwezor, rejected the traditional national pavilion model in favor of transnational curatorial networks, but persistent power imbalances continued to shape the event. Rather than concentrating solely on the artworks presented, this study emphasizes the examination of underlying structures and power dynamics that produce exclusion within such exhibitions. It also explores notions of incompleteness and absence as vital forms of critical knowledge. Consequently, the Johannesburg Biennale emerges not as a fixed legacy but as a contested and unresolved site that challenges dominant art historical narratives.