Scenes from the South

First launched at Amazwi South African Museum of Literature in 2020 in collaboration with the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, SOAS University of London, and the University of York to celebrate the 80th birthday of Nobel Prizewinning author, J. M. Coetzee, Scenes from the South takes a cartographical approach, mapping the landscapes (farms, towns, cities, seasides and suburbs) in which Coetzee has lived and written — from Cape Town to Adelaide, and as a regular guest at literary festivals and universities in Argentina, Chile, Colombia. Inspired by his own fictionalised autobiographical trilogy, Scenes from Provincial Life, and his three-year project, ‘Literatures of the South’ (2015-2018) in Argentina, this travelling exhibition is designed as a series of itineraries, featuring three key sites in the southern hemisphere, with the port cities of Cape Town, Adelaide, and Buenos Aires all hovering, as it happens, on the same latitudinal line at 34 degrees South.

The 2024 variation of Scenes from the South, hosted by the South Australian Maritime Museum in the heritage district of Port Adelaide, traverses new ground, with additional itineraries, archives and images from the city and hills of Adelaide and along the coast of South Australia, where Coetzee has made his home since 2002. Marking the 50th anniversary of Coetzee’s first novel, Dusklands, the exhibition is also timed for the 150th anniversary of the University of Adelaide, where Coetzee is honorary professor, and where he will be joined for the University’s festivities by fellow Nobel Laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and a host of other writers and critics, for the week-long programme, Speaking from the South (31 May – 5 June 2024).

In this new collaboration with the History Trust of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, Scenes from the South asks questions about country and coastlines, streets and seascapes, migration and navigation. It also travels to another significant site in the history of maritime travel and trade, with the companion exhibition, Zanzibar Views. Showcasing historical photographs from Capital Art Studio in Zanzibar’s Stone Town in conversation with Gurnah’s own writing of the Swahili Coast, it offers an illuminating portrait of the architectural spaces and Indian Ocean worlds of Zanzibar’s most celebrated novelist.