Farouk submitted his dissertation in Visual and Performing Art from Durban University of Technology (DUT). He is currently waiting for examination results and hopes to graduate in September 2025. Title: Politics of the Gut: Food, Art and Colonial Modernity Abstract This dissertation attempts to lay out a terrain for food-based practice in the Fine Arts, …
The work ‘The Eaters:: Comedores / The Eaten :: Comidos’ was realised for a group exhibition and cultural exchange project called Conversations in Gondwana which culminated in an exhibition hosted at the Centre for Contemporary Culture São Paulo (CCSP), in Brazil, in 2019. The work allowed for a conversation across histories and geographies, personal experiences …
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Continuing the Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions series, Ismail Farouk, a Fellow in the MAK Urban Future Initiative, presented a survey of his activities and strategies for activating change, including video, photography and performance. Farouk’s focus on the urban spaces of Johannesburg, South Africa point the Western viewer to places, vocabulary and politics that might …
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Muchoindio.com is the name given to the URL associated with the artwork that forms part of the practical component of my PhD dissertation. The webpage houses several multi-channel short video pieces that play automatically and on a continuous loop along with selected still imagery that all make up the webpage. The combination of still and …
Art for Humanity (AFH), hosted by the Durban University of Technology’s Faculty of Art & Design, is a not-for-profit public benefit organisation engaging with multidisciplinary arts practices and a wide range of creative work, especially around the urgent need to centre social justice today. Based primarily in Durban, AFH supports, hosts, documents, creates space for, …
Conversations in Gondwana (2019) was a transcontinental, research-driven platform, hosted at the Centre for Contemporary Culture São Paulo (CCSP) with support from the São Paulo State Government. The project paired South African and Brazilian artists in year-long dialogues addressing history, identity, gender, and urban dynamics under a decolonial lens. My collaboration with Daniel Lima included …
Urban Future Manifestos (edited by Peter Noever and Kimberli Meyer with texts by Saskia Sassen, Zvi Hecker, Ai Weiwei) is a compelling anthology of interdisciplinary responses to urgent global urban challenges — including migration, economic shifts, political tensions, and ecological concerns. It was inspired by the MAK Center’s Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Fellowship program, which …
My practice was profiled by Cara Snyman in the publication Positions: Contemporary Artists in South Africa, edited by Peter Anders and Matthew Krouse. The book brings together critical perspectives on contemporary art practices in South Africa, foregrounding artists engaging deeply with space, politics, and the everyday. Snyman’s essay, Artistic Work “With” and “In” Space, situates …
As part of the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, themed Cities: Architecture and Society, curated by Cassim Shepard, I was invited to produce a short film profiling Johannesburg. The film, titled JHB626GP, combines digital photographs, archival film, video, and kinetic flash animations to capture the unique urban rhythms of Johannesburg. It explores the city’s historical legacy …
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In 2024, I curated a retrospective of acclaimed documentary photographer Cedric Nunn to coincide with the launch of the African Documentary Photography Archive Initiative (ADPAI). The exhibition invited viewers to engage with Nunn’s photographs relationally — connecting past and present, and revealing images as sites of solidarity, resilience, fugitivity, and struggle across race, class, gender, …
This set of foraging walks, food, herb and seed shares and curated film screenings was put together by collaborating artists Nicole Sarmiento, Ismail Farouk and Yasmin Meyer. In Archives of the Botanical you were invited to a day of film screenings, walks and seed/herb shares for Palestine. Alongside the work of visual artist and filmmaker …
In 2018, I had the privilege of serving as academic coordinator for ISEA Durban, one of the leading international symposia on electronic art. Alongside this, I collaborated with Nicole Sarmiento to present a land performance video commemorating 100 years of the Native Land Act in South Africa, reflecting on the ongoing impact of colonial land …
Photos: Ashley Walters, Poem: Toni Steward This collaborative walk and spatial intervention through performance, sound, poetry and alternative forms of collective mapping took place under the rubric of a public art festival put together to commemorate the centenary of the 1913 Land Act. The LAND festival, put together by the Gordon Institute of Performing …
A Short talk presented as part of the commemoration of the 1913 Natives Land Act, for the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), hosted at the District Six Museum. 22 November 2013 Good Evening to all! Thank you to GIPCA for creating this platform for creative practitioners, and for allowing an exploration of …
This article was originally published in the African Cities Reader I. A creation of Chimurenga and the African Centre for Cities: https://chimurengachronic.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/African-Cities-Reader-I-Online-high-res.pdf By Ismail Farouk Joubert Park presents a particular context of the Johannesburg inner city in decline. situated centrally in the downtown area, Joubert Park boasts two large taxi interchanges and a tightly locked …