The 2025 edition of the RMB Latitudes Art Fair will continue to deepen the Fair’s commitment to foster meaningful engagement on the continent by hosting a Botswana exposé as part of the International Galleries Platform.
Where costs to participate in fairs have become prohibitive in an increasingly globalised art market, the International Galleries Platform offers an accessible means for galleries and artists on the continent and in the diaspora to show in South Africa – and this year – by focusing on one specific art ecosystem, RMB Latitudes hopes to make a measurable impact and establish long standing connections with Botswana.
Latitudes Curator, Boitumelo Makousu, explains that the benefit of focusing on one locale, allows for a deeper exploration of the nation’s cultural practice and artistic ecosystem.
“Curatorially, the Botswana focus will grapple with the historical and ideological narratives of borders – those internal to the region as well as the geographical markers that distinguish Botswana in relation to South Africa and the broader world,” says Makousu.
Participating artists, curators, cultural practitioners and collectives include the TBP Artist Collective, The Space Botswana, ReCurate, Banana Club, Art Residency Centre Botswana (ARC), and an online collaboration with Ora Loapi. They will present as a holistic project, weaving layers between their independent interests & a collective story. Through the collaborative structure of engagement, the project aims to scope the depth and nuances of Botswana’s largely unknown arts landscape.
Taken as a whole, the range of critical, archival and artistic voices emerging out of Botswana’s contemporary art scene share an ethos of premeditated divergence. However, this is not a complete rupture from the region’s historical artistic output typified by a heritage and conservation approach, with a focus on landscape and wildlife elements. Perhaps the better words are repurposing or reappropriation, not so much finding a voice as it is asserting one.
This much is evident: Botswana’s art industry is undergoing a period of metamorphosis.
RMB Latitudes’ Botswana focus aims to facilitate and catalyse this critical shift, operating as a platform for the growing interest in contemporary art from the region. This will assist in increasing visibility and exposure for the visual arts in Botswana, leading to greater development and consolidation of necessary arts infrastructure.
While there are indications of outward momentum, local support is still integral for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the visual arts. By highlighting independent and crucial voices, RMB Latitudes’ Botswana Focus aims to engender the future stability of visual arts in the region and beyond.
Linda Kachingwe-Sisya, Executive of Head Marketing and Communications:Africa and International at RMB adds: “RMB is committed to unlocking talent and enabling Africa’s creative economy in a sustainable and meaningful way. By shining a light on Botswana’s creative voices, we hope to contribute to helping talent gain broader visibility and create lasting connections across the continent.”
A snapshot of participating collectives
The Botswana exposé will incorporate a special online collaboration with Ora Loapi, a Gaborone-based curatorial and archival project, founded by Lerato Motshwarakgole, to uncover Botswana’s complex and often obscured visual histories.
TBP Artist Collective is a Gaborone-based multidisciplinary contemporary artist collective whose project revolves around the idea of Selemela. This refers to the Pleiades star cluster, which in Setswana and other regional cultures signals the start of the ploughing season and invokes an understanding of ensembles, individuals and elements. The metaphor speaks to the role of TBP as a collective, which is both cultivating and archiving Botswana’s contemporary artistic voice, addressing gaps in representation within local and international art spaces.
The Art Residency Centre (ARC) is an artist-led initiative based in Gaborone which aims to offer a distribution platform for the dissemination of work by a new generation of Motswana artists. ARC is bringing together a diverse lineup of multidisciplinary artists who explore the confines of the traditional to find more relevant modes of expression.
ReCurate is a leading curatorial agency that will present a conceptual focus on the notion of transition and liminality. The theme is as much about temporal suspension as it is about the uncertainty underpinning contingent transnational, ideological and historical structures – so if Botswana’s contemporary art scene is teetering between the thrill of uncertainty and creative evolution, this should reflect in ReCurate’s booth.
The Space Botswana is an artist hub and gallery located in Maun. Their collaborative work as a creative organisation is a means through which ambiguity and uncertainty can be overcome.
Banana Club isan artist-led collective whose visual production and expression prioritises the formation of safe and engaging community dialogue. The showcase will exhibit a body of work by contemporary painter Katlego Twala, exploring themes of the ephemeral and fleeting. His portraiture speaks to the fragility of personal history – the way memory distorts, fades, and yet remains deeply present.
Get Your Tickets
Tickets for RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2025 are on sale. Visit latitudesartfair.com/tickets to book before they sell out.
About RMB
RMB was established in 1977 and represents the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) activities of the FirstRand group, one of the largest financial services groups in Africa. We offer our clients innovative, value-added advisory, funding, trading, corporate banking and principal investing solutions. As a leading CIB franchise across the broader Africa region, RMB has a deal footprint in over 35 countries in Africa, as well as presence in the UK, USA, India and China.
For more information please visit: www.rmb.co.za
About Latitudes
Latitudes launched as a physical art fair in 2019 and has since evolved into an integral player in the African art industry. The all-women team behind Latitudes Online also run an online marketplace for art from Africa, an art podcast, a series of mentorship programmes and an art award, all with the common goal of creating voices for independent artists and connecting artists with collectors.
For more information please visit: latitudes.online
