Bongo Mei is a multidisciplinary Practitioner and independent Researcher, with a focus on art curation, African image making and writing, he graduated from the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, with a diploma in Fine Art. While still at university he founded MAD(Music Art Design) SCHOOL SOCIETY, In 2010 he founded an artists’ collective known as “The Basement Project”, where he started curating and facilitating workshops independently in alternative spaces, and public institutions; including, Alliance Francaise, Nelson Mandela Metro Museum, Nelson Mandela University, etc. It is after his 3 years (2013) of intense curation and workshop facilitation that he was called to ICI (Independent Curators International) based in New York, looking at curating in an African Context.…

bheleGalleri

Bongo Mei is a multidisciplinary Practitioner and independent Researcher, with a focus on art curation, African image making and writing, he graduated from the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, with a diploma in Fine Art. While still at university he founded MAD(Music Art Design) SCHOOL SOCIETY, In 2010 he founded an artists’ collective known as “The Basement Project”, where he started curating and facilitating workshops independently in alternative spaces, and public institutions; including, Alliance Francaise, Nelson Mandela Metro Museum, Nelson Mandela University, etc. It is after his 3 years (2013) of intense curation and workshop facilitation that he was called to ICI (Independent Curators International) based in New York, looking at curating in an African Context.…

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Bongo Mei is a multidisciplinary Practitioner and independent Researcher, with a focus on art curation, African image making and writing, he graduated from the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, with a diploma in Fine Art. While still at university he founded MAD(Music Art Design) SCHOOL SOCIETY, In 2010 he founded an artists’ collective known as “The Basement Project”, where he started curating and facilitating workshops independently in alternative spaces, and public institutions; including, Alliance Francaise, Nelson Mandela Metro Museum, Nelson Mandela University, etc. It is after his 3 years (2013) of intense curation and workshop facilitation that he was called to ICI (Independent Curators International) based in New York, looking at curating in an African Context.

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Work Experience

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Education

Diploma of Fine Art at Nelson Mandela University
February 5, 2007 - November 30, 2011

Qualifications

Artist
February 4, 2008 - March 7, 2025
Curator
March 8, 2010 - March 7, 2025

Industry Experience

Other
    paper Dark City

    Exhibition Title _ Dark City, Dark Continent

    Curator _ Bhele Galleri (Bongo Mei)

    Theme_ African Mythology

    First Art Installation

    Installation Title_ Deities of Cemetery: Sifo(Disease), Nokufa(Death),Buthikazi(Witchcraft)

    Art Media _ Fashion.Film.FineArt

    The exhibition is a product of CHIP_Curatorial Heritage Interpretation Program, developed and compiled by Curator, Image Maker, Writer and Researcher, Bhele Galleri(BongoMei). The program works with the contextualization of indigenous information into the 21st century, through contemporary image making techniques and conceptual design. The theme of the exhibition is African mythology with the art installation Deities of Cemetery which are Sifo(Disease), Nokufa(Death), Buthikazi(Witchcraft), these were indigenous names of Bongo Mei’s grandparents, named according to ritualistic belief. The concept behind was that the best way to overcome one’s enemy without a fight, is to dissolve into them. Disease cannot infect itself, Death cannot kill itself and Witchcraft cannot curse itself.