Since the 2000s, Zanele Muholi has been researching and documenting the lives of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa through powerful, intimate photographs. The Gropius Bau in Berlin will host Muholi's first comprehensive solo exhibition in Germany from 26 November 2021. Zanele Muholi describes herself as a visual activist and addresses themes such as sexual politics, racist violence, community resistance and empowerment. In South Africa, violence due to homophobia and transphobia is still widespread, which is why it is an important concern for Muholi to support and empower LGBTQ+ people through photography and the resulting visibility. In addition to the resulting self-empowerment, Muholi's works also repeatedly challenge the heteronormative gaze. Until 13 March 2022, the exhibition titled Zanele Muholi shows early and lesser-known image series as well as more recent works, including the series Faces and Phases and Brave Beauties. Both depict black, queer and trans identities and with them people who risk their lives simply by living out their authentic selves due to repression and discrimination.
Zanele Muholi was born in 1972 in Durban, South Africa and works with photography, video and installation. Muholi became known for the series Faces and Phases (2006-2016), which includes hundreds of sensitive portraits of Black lesbian women, trans and gender non-conforming people, challenging the country's usual rhetoric of homosexuality being »un-African«. Muholi's works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim (New York) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York), among others. Zanele Muholi identifies as non-binary and uses the English pronouns they and them.
