One of the continent’s most celebrated multidisciplinary artists, William Kentridge uses drawings, films, sculpture, theatre, and collaborative improvisation to engage himself and audiences on matters related to memory, history, identity, and political turmoil, often through the lens of South Africa’s complex socio-political landscape.
A meditation on exile, return, and the role that artists play in the world, Kentridge’s solo exhibition To Cross One More Sea delves into the search for meaning and the boundaries of understanding. Through a diverse array of works—ranging from drawings and works on paper to small sculptures, puppets, and film— making its African debut — the exhibition builds on his recent projects, placing particular emphasis on his latest theatre production, The Great Yes, The Great No. This body of work reflects Kentridge’s ongoing exploration of complex themes such as displacement, identity, and the elusive nature of knowledge, while inviting audiences into a space where personal and collective histories intertwine.
The opera reimagines the historical journey of the Capitaine Paul-Lemerle, a ship that sailed from Marseille to Martinique in 1941, carrying a group of artists and intellectuals fleeing Vichy France. Among them were surrealist André Breton, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, communist writer Victor Serge, and exiled German author Anna Seghers.
Blending elements of play, Greek chorus, and chamber opera, all enriched by Kentridge’s signature surrealist visuals; the narrative weaves history and fiction together, augmenting reality to create a space where celebrated figures from the past join an allegorical “ark”—a metaphor for the countless forced migrations of both history and the present. At its core, The Great Yes, The Great No is a meditation on colonialism, surrealism, and the dislocation of intellectual and artistic communities in times of crisis.