Thuthuka Sibisi is a multidisciplinary artist, performance maker and composer based in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Sibisi roots his practice in critically interrogates the intersections of
queer identity, colonial legacies and sonic resistance; creating spaces for radical reimagining
through interdisciplinary performance, sound and installation.
He is a Stellenbosch University graduate with a Bachelor of Music. Alongside his music studies he
completed studies in Physical Theatre and Movement with Sam Prigge and Estelle Olivier
(Stellenbosch). At Goldsmiths (UK) he completed an MA (Performance Making); and currently a
Phd candidate at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS) at the University of
Johannesburg (UJ).
Visual collaborations include work with Johannesburg-based photographer and sculptor, Jake
Singer, on Joburg City Hustle (2015) and Intersections To This City (2014) - presented at
Sustainable Empires (Venice, Italy) and Los Angeles Centre for Digital Art (USA). Other exhibition
work includes the performance installation Extracts from The Underground (2013) - presented in
collaboration with the ICA (formerly known as GIPCA - Cape Town). This installation was later
presented at Wits Art Museum in 2014 as part of The Migrant Journey Series. In 2016 the sound
and image installation The African Choir 1891 Re-imagined was presented as part of the Black
Chronicles Archive Laboratory at Autograph ABP (London), University of Johannesburg’s VIAD
FADA (Johannesburg, RSA), Iziko South African Museum (Cape Town, RSA) and The Apartheid
Museum (Johannesburg, RSA) curated by Reneé Mussai.
Recent collaborations in film include Sonder (dir. Thuthuka Sibisi, 2025), Not here but here and
everywhere else (dir. Thuthuka Sibisi and Luke Radloff, 2024) Ixhala (dir. Zandile Tisani), Our
People (dir. Wanda Lephoto), and Lamentations (dir. Boris Gerrets, 2019).
Thuthuka has toured extensively, performing throughout South Africa as well as Asia, Europe and
the Americas. Stage engagements include Chorus Master for UCT Opera School: Poulenc’s
Dialogues des Carmélites, Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims and Four:30 - South African Operas. As
well as assistant stage director alongside Matthew Wild for The Flying Dutchman (Cape Town
Opera, RSA).
His most recent collaboration is with South African choreographer Dada Masilo on Dada Masilo’s
Hamlet which premiered in Vienna, 2024. In the same year Sibisi would be commissioned by FNB
Art Joburg, in collaboration with Exhibition.Match, to create a performance installation for the
opening night. Broken Chord is a co-creation alongside South African choreographer Gregory
Maqoma presently touring Europe, Canada and the Americas; most notably Brooklyn Academy of
Music (USA), Sadler’s Wells (UK), Grec Festival de Barcelona (Spain), Théâtre de la Ville
(France), Kunstfest Weimar (Germany), St Pölten Festpielhaus (Austria), Torinodanza Festival/
Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale Festival Aperto / Fondazione I Teatri – Reggio Emilia
(Italy), Stanford Live at Stanford University (USA). Lakutshon’ilanga was commissioned by Dutch
National Opera and Ballet as part of Faust [workingtitle] (Netherlands). In 2016 Thuthuka made his
Italian debut as music director and composer for William Kentridge’s Triumphs and Laments
(Italy). He has an ongoing collaboration with Philip Miller and William Kentridge as both musical
director and composer for The Head and The Load which premiered at The Tate Modern (UK);
subsequently touring to Park Avenue Armory (NYC), Holland Festival (Netherlands), The
Ruhrtriennale (Germany) and Joburg Theatre (RSA). Sibisi was commissioned by Cape Town
Opera to conceive Musiquées Sacrée d’Afrique et d’Europe (premier) at Festival International
d’Aix-en-Provence (France).
Sibisi’s work bridges artistic practice and scholarly research, with recent publications including
Meandering in Postcolonial Echoes in Esclavages & Post-esclavages (2024) and a forthcoming
chapter Freedom as Erotic Practice in Queer (Im)possibilities in the Global South (2025). He will
present a paper at the upcoming PSi (Performance Studies International) conference in Fortaleza,
Brazil later this year (2025). His creative research has been developed through visiting artist
positions at Yale University, Princeton University and The American Academy in Berlin.
He is an Olivier Award Nominee (UK), a recipient of a South African Music Award (SAMA) for
Best Alternative Album - with Desire Marea (2022, RSA), Mail & Guardian 200 Young South
Africans (2017, RSA), Ampersand Foundation Fellow (NYC), American Academy in Berlin invited
artist (Germany), Bushwick Center resident (NYC) Goethe Institut resident (Germany), Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence Multidisciplinary residency (France) and selected as a Performa Biennial 19
Curatorial Fellow (NYC).
