Rangoato Hlasane, Ph.D.

Rangoato Hlasane’s artistic research and praxis is a bold concern and commitment to the search for and collective experiments in the co-creation of meaningful impact at the intersection of cultural work and socio-spatial justice. His praxis is best manifested in his co-founding of Keleketla! Library, Johannesburg (est. 2008, nominated for the Vera List Prize in Art and Politics, 2014). Through Keleketla!, his work has been collaboratively presented at the 10^th Berlin Biennale of Contemporary Art (2018), documenta fifteen (2022) and at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2024).

His artistic research and practice is an interdiscursive intervention into Indigenous Knowledge Systems, as seen through the lens of African Popular Culture and Black Public Humanities. His solo practice has been presented at Work.Detroit gallery in Detroit (USA) in 2008 and the Johannesburg Art Gallery Project Space (2009).

He graduated in MAFA with the University of Johannesburg (2011) and completed PhD in African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand. Two of the chapters in the doctoral dissertation are in the form of essayistic videos namely Sesasedi sa Tsodio (2021-2023) and Sa Koša ke Lerole (2023).

Sesasedi sa Tsodio has formed part of TECHNO WORLDS programme and exhibition since August 2021 showing in cities such as Budapest, Montreal, New York, Portland, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Zurich and Dresden and more. Outside of the TECHNO WORLDS trajectory, Sesasedi sa Tsodio has shown at the very geographies and sites from which it borrows its image and stories: Mamelodi, Mahikeng and Meadowlands in addition to various village schools in Polokwane, South Africa. Sesasedi sa Tsodio and Sa Koša ke Lerole were screened in sequence was at Chimurenga Factory (Cape Town) in March 2024 and at the Other Universals Summer Institute organised by the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies at the Bioscope Independent Cinema (Johannesburg) in August 2024.

His book chapter, written with the late Bhekizizwe Peterson is titled ‘Matters of Kwaito and why Kwaito matters’, appears in the Routledge Handbook of African Popular Culture (2022) edited by Grace Musila. He is co-editor of Wondering Hand(s) and Spirited Ink: Snapshots into the Black Public Humanities with Moshibudi Motimele (2024).

He was a lecturer in Fine Art at Wits School of Arts (2013-2024), where he was shortlisted for the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching and Learning Awards (2023) and served as Deputy Head of Department (Fine Art) for the year 2024. His key contribution at Wits School of Arts includes curriculum development, best exemplified by collective/self-publishing initiatives that has exposed students to editorial frameworks that has led to public displays, discourse and visibilities in their locales and globally. 

www.keleketla.org