‘Endlovini as a Form of Archive’ is an installation that dwells in the tension between fragility and resilience. Built from found objects – silk, mutton cloth, thread and wood – it becomes a shelter and memory site, a space where survival transforms into resistance.

Inspired by the act of Ukundlova – informal land identification and occupation – the work foregrounds how necessity creates communities and asserts presence against systemic neglect.

The installation emerged from research into informal settlements in the Eastern Cape, where institutional records conflicted with the oral histories of residents. Elders’ memories, carried in voice and gesture, revealed beginnings far earlier than state documents suggested, emphasising the authority of lived experience over official narrative.

Wezile Harmans is an artist and researcher. International projects include a video performance with LEAD Project and LSE Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa (London), M1/M2 highway billboard feature by The Centre for the Less Good Idea (Johannesburg), and a film by human rights defender Hub Artivism and University of York (CAHR) (UK), and a commission from Art Rights Truth (UK).

Harmans’ project 'Umdiyadiya' received the 2022 Best Visual Art Award in Creative Collection by the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and he was the David Koloane Award recipient in 2019 and Prince Claus Fund Building Beyond Award recipient in 2022.

His performance work has been showcased at Iziko South African National Gallery, Norval Foundation in South Africa and he has participated in several international residencies including SIRA residency (Madagascar), Griffin Art Projects 'Virtual Worldings' Residency (Canada), PACT Zollverein (Germany), Frankfurt Lab in Germany, IASPIS residency in Stockholm, Sweden and BLACKROCK Senegal.