Dear friends and colleagues

 

I grew up with a diplomatic passport. Crossing borders felt procedural, almost banal. Movement was assumed. It was only when I returned to South Africa - when my documents changed, when queues lengthened, when justifications were demanded - that I understood something fundamental: the freedom of movement I had known was not a right, but a privilege quietly conferred by the state. Losing it made the structure visible.

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The Artworld Passport does not romanticise travel or propose a naïve borderless fantasy. It is a pointed institutional critique that exposes how the global art ecosystem mirrors geopolitical power: artworks circulate more freely than the artists who make them; invitations outpace visas; inclusion is promised while access is denied. The project’s power lies in its precision - it turns the passport, that instrument of exclusion, into a record of who is allowed to be present and who is systematically deferred.

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If you believe that movement, visibility, and participation in culture should not be determined by nationality, you are invited to apply.

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The project will be showcased at the upcoming Investec Cape Town Art Fair (20-22 February, 2026). Applications are open to all art enthuisants, art collectors, artists, curators, writers, cultural workers, thinkers and more. Click on the link below to get yours:

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Best regards

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Siwa Mgoboza

(artist and curator)

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