Francois Knoetze

Born in Cape Town (1989), Francois Knoetze is a performance artist, sculptor and filmmaker. Knoetze’s work incorporates video, performance and sculpture, as he retraces the life cycles of discarded objects and explores junctures between material and social histories. After completing his BFA at Rhodes University, Makhanda, he created his first major video series, Cape Mongo (2013-2016) as part of his MFA degree (Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT) which has been exhibited extensively both locally and internationally (at La Triennale di Milano in 2019, Kunsthal KAdE in 2018, Wiener Festwochen in 2015, LagosPhoto Festival in 2015, Somerset House in 2015). Since completing his formal education, Knoetze’s practice has been itinerant. He has spent the past 5 years working on projects in South Africa, Tanzania (artist in residence at Nafasi Art Space), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (as part of Kinact3 Public Art Festival), Dakar (Afropixel6/Digital Imaginaries), New York and Shenzhen (Digital Earth Fellowship). Knoetze is a co-founder of the Lo-Def Film Factory. Based in South Africa, the collective’s work involves archival research, dramaturgy and visual strategies associated with video art, collage, sculptural installation and Virtual Reality, to explore and create space for collaborative, experimental community storytelling.