During the first week of the exhibition space of togetherness, presented by NEON at the Drama School of the Greek National Theatre, inside the installation of South African artist Igshaan Adams where he creates an amalgam using his past works, a new commission blends hand-woven installations and tapestries with performances, taking place in situ from 9-14 September.

The performance is in consultation with Garage Dance Ensemble from O’okiep in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It starts with a six-day workshop demonstrating the power of dance and movement to heal internal wounds. Directed by Adams, dancers from Cape Town —Jaime-Lee Hine, Lewellyn Regardt Afrika, Savannah Ashley Petrus, Zandile Salukazana, and Zanele Salukazana—together with local dancers Sofia Pouchtou, Elton Petri, and Candy Karra, leave painted traces of their bodies on inked-in canvases positioned on the linoleum floors.

In the negative space between these body prints Adams creates woven pathways using beads and colourful threads to reveal boundaries and borders, past and present. Through this weaving he creates a new entanglement of earlier histories—the linoleum floors of houses in Cape Town, Adams’s previous tapestries and ‘dust clouds’ works —and the energy and resilience of the body transcribed in the new body prints.

Igshaan Adams (b.1982, Cape Town, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town. His hand-woven installations and tapestries address complex personal and communal histories that reflect his identity as a queer person of mixed race and religion (born Muslim yet raised in a Christian home) and growing up in Bonteheuwel, a racially segregated part of Cape Town during apartheid. space of togetherness brings together a selection of his earlier works and a new commission that will evolve during the duration of the show, activating the exhibition space. This performative aspect of his practice offers viewers a lens into his technique and method of working.

VIDEO | Igshaan Adams | When Dust Settles: The Body’s Archive (2024) | Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects, Cape Town | Commissioned by NEON with special thanks to Garage Dance Ensemble | Video Filmed at space of togetherness (2024) | NEON at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece | School of Athens – Irene Papas © NEON 2024