For many of the artists gathered in Johannesburg, war was not an abstract subject. Some had witnessed its effects firsthand, while others carried its consequences into their creative practice.
From August 22 to 24, 2026, six artists from Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Sudan, and the United States came together for The Imagined New III: War, Grief, and Hope, an international workshop held at the Art Centre at the University of Johannesburg.
The workshop was hosted by Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) and organized in partnership with the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and The Africa Institute at Global Studies University (GSU).
Representing The Africa Institute, GSU were Anthony Bogues, Professor at Large at The Africa Institute, GSU; Surafel Wondimu Abebe, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Theory; and Mifta Zeleke Berga, a second-year student in the Ph.D. in Global Studies program specializing in Cultural, Visual, and Literary Studies.
Designed as an open-ended gathering, the workshop invited artists to consider their own circumstances and the conditions shaping their societies. Over three days, participants examined how creative practice might respond to conflict and loss while making space for solidarity, refusal, and the possibility of different futures.
Bogues and Abebe introduced a series of provocations that guided the conversations. Their contributions explored collective ideation, the postcolonial state and contemporary warfare, the connections between societies, the forms of solidarity that might be built across borders, and the politics and aesthetics of refusal. They also considered how everyday practices of being human can become ways of imagining other futures.
Berga participated alongside Ph.D. and Master’s students from GSU, the University of Johannesburg, and Brown University, contributing questions and perspectives to discussions with the artists.
The gathering marked the third installment of The Imagined New. The series began at VIAD in 2019, with subsequent virtual gatherings titled The Imagined New II: Black Sonic in December 2022 and a workshop hosted at Global Studies University from April 7 to 9, 2025, at The Africa Institute, GSU. Each gathering has provided artists and scholars with space to think collectively about the conditions in which creative and intellectual work is produced.
The Johannesburg program extended beyond the workshop through a public event at The Forge titled How We Sense and Feel: A Gathering to Reimagine Creative Solidarity. Facilitated by Nondumiso Lwazi Msimanga of VIAD, the event brought the six participating artists and a South African saxophonist into conversation with members of the public.
Reflecting on the gathering, Abebe said: “The conversations were intellectually and emotionally demanding, particularly because many participants had witnessed or personally experienced the trauma and material consequences of war. At the same time, the workshop was generative. It gave artists space to work through the experiences underpinning their creative practices, develop concerns present in their earlier work, and imagine new forms of artistic intervention and solidarity.”
By the close of the gathering, participants had begun proposing future workshops and residency programs. These initiatives could culminate in exhibitions, public programs, and other forms of engagement, carrying the conversations begun in Sharjah and Johannesburg into new places and communities.
