Passage—a song. comes to Javett-UP

From 17 September 2026 until 30 May 2027, the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP) is proud to present Passage—a song, a collaborative photographic exhibition by Berlin-based artists Akinbode Akinbiyi (UK/Nigeria) and Abrie Fourie (South Africa). Bringing together photography, sound, and political imagination, the exhibition invites audiences into a reflective exploration of listening, memory, and place. Echoing Thomas Sankara's words, “I can hear the roar of women's silence,” this travelling project considers the political and poetic dimensions of listening and what it means to attend to voices, histories, and experiences that often remain unheard.

Developed during a residency in Burkina Faso in 2021, the project emerged from the artists' movements through the streets of Ouagadougou and the surrounding landscapes of Oubritenga Province. Their time there coincided with a period of increasing political uncertainty that culminated in a military coup in January 2022. While not overtly documentary, the work is informed by this atmosphere of anticipation and change, which became a subtle backdrop to their artistic inquiry.

With a shared investigation into place, memory, and listening, both artists work independently yet in conversation with one another to capture the visual and acoustic landscapes they find themselves in. Their photographs turn to the quieter details of daily life, revealing the everyday rhythms that shape the environments they pass through, evoking traces of cultural memory, the enduring legacy of Thomas Sankara, and collective histories that continue to resonate today.

At the heart of Passage—a song. lies a simple yet profound question: What do we hear when we look? Can photography register sound, silence, memory, or longing? Can images reveal the frequencies of a place, or bring us closer to stories that remain unspoken? The exhibition proposes photography as a form of listening—an attentive engagement with the visible and invisible forces that shape lived experience.

This iteration includes a four-channel sound installation by Abrie Fourie in collaboration with composer Boris Baltschun, extending the exhibition beyond the visual realm. Photographic works and sound are presented in conversation with one another, creating an immersive environment that encourages visitors to move, pause, and listen. The exhibition design mirrors the experience of traversing a landscape, where moments of density and openness, noise and silence, memory and forgetting unfold in rhythm.

"At Javett-UP, we are interested in exhibitions that expand the ways we engage with art and knowledge," says Storm Janse van Rensburg, Interim Curatorial Director at Javett-UP. " Passage—a song. offers a profound meditation on listening through images, memory, and voices that shape our collective experience. Its presentation at Javett-UP creates an opportunity for dialogue across geographies, histories, and lived realities while reaffirming the Art Centre's commitment to fostering critical reflection and meaningful exchange."

Rather than functioning as a documentary project, Passage—a song. is a sensory proposition. It asks audiences to attune themselves to the interplay between visual and sonic perception and to consider how histories continue to reverberate through contemporary spaces. In doing so, the exhibition positions listening not only as an artistic method but also as a way of engaging with the world.

The exhibition premiered at SCHARAUN in Berlin in 2023 with the support of the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa. Following presentations in Berlin and Ouagadougou in 2024, Passage—a song. has entered a new chapter in Southern Africa. Its presentation at Javett-UP follows installations at the KKNK Festival in Oudtshoorn in March 2026 and the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the University of the Free State in August 2026.

Through their distinct yet complementary practices, Akinbiyi and Fourie create a compelling conversation around attentive seeing, historical reflection, and the possibility of hearing through images. Passage—a song ultimately invites audiences to slow down, listen closely, and consider the many ways in which places, memories, and histories continue to speak.

Visitor Information

Exhibition dates: 17 September 2026 until 30 May 2027

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, and the last Sunday of every month

10:00–16:00

Admission

R80 Adults | R50 Pensioners and under 18s | Free for children under 6, registered tertiary students, UP staff, and active ICOM and SAMA members

Bookings are open at Webtickets. Walk-ins are welcome for self-guided visits.

Guided tours

From R400 per group and can be arranged at least 48 hours in advance by emailing [email protected].

Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pNuIng6vdRPb0fo6Y-0-dwWSJ1aCOrT4?usp=sharing 

ENDS

Issued by the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP)

For inquiries, please contact

Thakgatso Monisi (Audience Engagement and Communications Coordinator)

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 0788233596

www.javettup.com

ABOUT THE JAVETT-UP

The Javett-UP is a space that enhances unique and exceptional transdisciplinary learning through the arts. The centre engages diverse publics in exploring the human condition and reimagining our futures. The Javett-UP is a partnership between the University of Pretoria and the Javett Foundation. Both share a firm belief in the value of the arts for society in general and education. It’s a project that is collegiate as it is philanthropic. With one foot firmly rooted in academia, and the other embedded in the public, Javett-UP aims to make the art of Africa accessible, relevant, and engaging.  It is our commitment to continuous de-colonial dialogues that respond to the present whilst considering the historical and the future implications of our political and social action. 

About Akinbode Akinbiyi

Akinbode Akinbiyi (b. 1946, Oxford, England) is a Nigerian-British photographer, curator, and writer based in Berlin. For nearly five decades, he has developed a distinctive photographic practice rooted in walking, wandering, and attentive observation. Working primarily in African cities, he explores the rhythms, encounters, and layered histories embedded in everyday urban life.

After studying English Literature at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Akinbiyi began working as a freelance photographer in 1977. Since then, he has travelled extensively across Africa and beyond, photographing cities such as Lagos, Cairo, Lubumbashi, Johannesburg, Ouagadougou, Khartoum, Dakar, Bamako, São Paulo, and Chicago. His work is characterised by an open-ended engagement with place, revealing the social, cultural, and poetic dimensions of contemporary urban life.

Akinbiyi’s work has been presented internationally at institutions and exhibitions including documenta 14 (Athens and Kassel), the Chicago Architecture Biennial, MoMA New York, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlinische Galerie, the Sharjah Biennial, and, most recently, Minor Keys at the 61st Venice Biennale. His photographs are held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Berlinische Galerie, and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

Throughout his practice, Akinbiyi approaches photography as a process of encounter— an act of looking, listening, and moving through the world. His images invite viewers to slow down and attend to the subtle gestures, relationships, and stories that shape everyday life. Recent publications include Passage—a song. (2023, with Abrie Fourie), Being, Seeing, Wandering (2024), Sometimes to be Lost Is to Be Found and to Be Found Is to Be Lost Anew (2024), and The Swiss Embassy in Berlin and Its Surroundings: A Building by Diener & Diener (2026), publications that further reflect his enduring engagement with the poetics of place, movement, and observation.

About Abrie Fourie 

Abrie Fourie (b. 1969, Pretoria, South Africa) is an artist, curator, educator, and publisher living and working between Berlin, Germany, and Richmond, South Africa. Working across photography, sound, walking, and artist publications, his practice explores the relationship between landscape, memory, listening, and the social and political histories embedded in place.

After studying Fine Arts at the Tshwane University of Technology and Curatorship through the Africus Institute in Johannesburg, Fourie taught photography and curatorial studies in Pretoria from 1993 to 2007. In 2005, he co-founded Modern Art Projects South Africa (MAPSA), an independent contemporary art organisation and residency programme based in Richmond, Northern Cape.

For more than three decades, Fourie has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museum for African Art, New York; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth; and Galerie Wedding, Berlin. His work has been included in major international exhibitions such as documenta 14, the Bamako Biennale of Photography, the Hamburg Triennial of Photography, and, most recently, The Tirailleur, Trials and Tribulations (2026), curated by Paz Guevara and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin.

Recent projects combine photography, sound, walking, and archival research to explore the resonances between landscape, memory, and belonging. His publications include Oblique (2011), Passage—a song. (2023, with Akinbode Akinbiyi), and Seeing with a Listening Ear—Layers of Feedback (2025). Through these interconnected practices, Fourie investigates how landscapes become repositories of memory and how attentive listening can reveal histories that lie beyond the visible image.