Gated Communities is a solo exhibition by Lindeka Qampi with over 50 artworks including her self portraits on show at M.Bassy in Hamburg from the 18th of June – 2nd of July 2022.
Multi-award winning photographer and visual artist, born in the Eastern Cape, residing in Cape Town showcases solo in Hamburg, Germany. Qampi showcases her works both created in Cape Town, South Africa and during her stay in Hamburg, Germany.
Gated community is a term used for parks with beautiful houses where wealthy people feel protected by high fences and grim men at the GATE from potentially dangerous fellow citizens. Symmetrically flipped like the positive negative of a photo, the term can be seen as a metaphor for confining and marginalizing part of a population, like in a ghetto. Lindeka Qampi’s Gated Communities showcases photos from the hard life in her township Khayelitsha near Cape Town, and of privileged neighborhoods with private beaches.
In Hamburg she photographed daily life on markets, subways, exhibition openings, just as European tourists would do when traveling on the African continent. In a series of performative self-portraits she used Hamburg as a stage back-drop. In addition, she documented during her two months stay traces of the colonial activities of some of Hamburg’s citizens that led to economic empires. Photos taken in Cape-Town and Hamburg, investigating inclusion and exclusion. 3rd guest of Reversed Exploration, an artists’ residence in Hamburg hosted by Kulturforum Süd-Nord.
Qampi, speaking about the importance of showing both works created in Cape Town and Hamburg, she says; “I wanted to show reality of the two cities which is Cape Town & Hamburg in a very honest way through images and similarities of colonisation in South Africa and Germany. I am excited to have the opportunity to be able to document both spaces and able to present my work the way I see fit.
Bongi Sikelo 
Cece Smith 