WHEN: Until 21 April, from 18:30 nightly
WHERE: Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch
COST: Free entry; book on Dineplan
‘Artificial light – with its implications of liberation from the restrictions of darkness – embodied an erosion of boundaries between public and private life. It is true that illumination allowed surveillance, but it also promoted freedom.’
— Visual artist Félix González-Torres
‘I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.’
— Author Ursula K Le Guin
From 21 March to 21 April, the Spier Light Art exhibition unfolds on Spier Wine Farm in Stellenbosch, transforming the farm into an immersive space of nocturnal adventure.
With numerous site-specific installations activating the landscape, visitors are free to wander, discover and immerse themselves in the play of light and the stories that each artwork tells – an embodied reminder of art’s transformative power to illuminate even the darkest corners of our world and minds.
One of the only dedicated contemporary light art exhibitions in Africa, Spier Light Art is dedicated to growing the light art genre in the Global South. While focused on curated, site-specific light art interventions by emerging and established South African artists, the festival ignites fresh sparks and interchange with visiting artists and audiences from the continent and the world at large through a structured residency programme designed to respond to local context.
This year, the exhibition hosts Swiss artists Sophie Guyot and Florian Bach. Having participated in past iterations of Spier Light Art, Guyot returns to run a three-day workshop with the Spier agricultural team, designed around the farm workers’ lived experiences and collaboratively producing a text-based light work that poses questions about the future of agriculture. Bach’s installation uses floodlights, typically used to control or limit access to designated spaces, and questions light’s role in border surveillance and social control.
Since its inception in 2018, the exhibition has reached more than 12 000 people over the course of its annual month-long run, providing free public access to a wildly diverse array of contemporary sculptural installations that use light, sound and video to entrance and provoke.
Maximal experimentation, interactivity and innovation are encouraged. The 16 selected light installations for 2025 have been conceptualised and built by artists and designers (professionals, students, institutions and collectives) who responded to an open call.
While the featured artworks tend to have an ethereal, ephemeral or enchanting quality, innate to the phenomenon of light itself, they also communicate ideas and feelings related to technology, resilience and life in South Africa with all its complexity and challenging narratives, as well as to the history and lived realities of a working wine farm. This year’s installations delve into light as a mode of surveillance and control and as a source of personal protection and safety. Some artworks use the spectral dimensions of light to call forth the ghosts and hauntings of place, while others consider lighting infrastructure, decentralised energy systems and sustainable solutions to public lighting.
Shared thematics emerge each year across artworks shortlisted from the open call. ‘This year, Spier Light Art reflects on three broad themes,’ say curators Vaughn Sadie and Jay Pather. The first is the farm as a site of colonial memory and shifting relationships to the land through the lens of historical and contemporary labour, farming and environmental practices [Gina-Rose Bolligello; Hashim Tarmahomed & Joshil Naran; Paul Castles & Nicole Brady; Sophie Guyot; Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum].
The second concerns light as infrastructure in the built environment, with works that reflect on access, surveillance and safety [Florian Bach; Serge Alain Nitegeka; Stephanie Briers & Andrew Earl AKA LightUp Collective; Sue Clark, Ross Juterbock & Carla Prins].
The third arises out of works that evoke joy through humour or materiality while still dealing with our contemporary condition [Jessica Bothma; Karla Nixon; Elgin Rust & Jane Appleby; Zakiyyah Haffejee, Mmakhotso Lamola, Zahraa Essa & TK Mbadi; Antoine Schmitt; Berco Wilsenach; Dean Hutton].
‘The way you navigate the meanings of the artworks installed on the farm is very organic and very much up to you. ‘There’s no hierarchy,’ says Pather. ‘It’s not like going into a white cube gallery, where there’s a clear and strong central narrative. The way you choose to move through the space – whether you choose to linger on one side of the lake or to cross the bridge – builds up its own narrative journey. You might encounter something that is deeply personal, or something that triggers the political in you, or something that looks up beyond our known world into the cosmos. The layering of conceptual clusters is what makes it fun to navigate.’
Light is a phenomenon that we sometimes take for granted. It is one of the key essentials for life on Earth – from plants to humans – to thrive and survive. Like most living things, humans are bioluminescent: we glow. We don’t have the visual capability to see ourselves emitting light, but we can connect with these mysterious wavelengths in ways that bring to light unexplored aspects of ourselves.
Now in its seventh year, Spier Light Art is Africa’s leading contemporary light art exhibition. A vital platform for emerging and established artists and collectives to showcase large-scale light installations, Spier Light Art is dedicated to pushing light art to its limits on the African continent.
A Vital Pairing | Art At Spier
Art sparks ideas and insights – and can catalyse change in societies – which is why it is such a core aspect of Spier’s ethic. Housing one of the largest contemporary art collections in the country, Spier is an enthusiastic supporter of African artists and their creations. Art is as much part of Spier as good food and fine wine. Spier Light Art is a highlight of Spier’s experiential art programme, which features numerous interactive outdoor performances and events throughout the year.
Public Access | Free Entry
Spier Light Art is free to the public and no booking is required. All of the artworks are outside so the best time to visit is at dusk, when the sun goes down and the lights come up.
Guided tours are hosted every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Tours depart from the info kiosk at 19:30. Tours are also free. Book your tour online at www.spier.co.za.
