William Kentridge and Homi K. Bhabha in conversation

William Kentridge (born Johannesburg, South Africa, 1955) is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions.

His method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty.

Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He has participated a number of times in dOCUMENTA in Kassel (2012, 2002, 1997) and the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2005, 1999 and 1993). His works are also in the collections of museums around the world.

Opera productions include The Magic Flute by Mozart, The Nose by Shostakovich, and Lulu and Wozzeck by Alban Berg, and have been seen at opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opéra de Lyon, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Sydney Opera House, and the Salzburg Festival.

Kentridge’s theatrical productions, performed in theatres and at festivals across the globe, include Refuse the Hour, Winterreise, Paper Music, The Head & the Load, Ursonate, and Waiting for the Sibyl, and, in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company, Ubu & the Truth Commission, Faustus in Africa!, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, and Woyzeck on the Highveld.

Kentridge is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities, including Yale, the University of London, and Columbia University. In 2010, he received the Kyoto Prize. In 2012, he was awarded the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France and presented the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. In 2015, he was appointed an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy in London. In 2017, he received the Princesa de Asturias Award for the Arts, and in 2018 the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize. In 2019, he received the Praemium Imperiale Award in Painting in Tokyo. In 2021, he was made a Foreign Associate Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris. In 2022, he was presented with the Honour of the Order of the Star of Italy, and in 2023 he received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for Sibyl in London.

Homi K. Bhabha is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities in the English and Comparative Literature Departments at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous pieces exploring postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis, contemporary art, and cosmopolitanism. His works include Nation and Narration, The Location of Culture, and forewords to Frantz Fanon’s major books. Bhabha has also written essays on William Kentridge, Anish Kapoor, Taryn Simon, and Matthew Barney, amongst others. He is a Corresponding Fellow at The British Academy, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and Critic-in-Residence at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.