THANIA PETERSEN
Thania Petersen was born in 1980 in Cape Town, South Africa, where she still lives and works.
She works across disciplines to trace interconnected histories and collective futures across the Global South. Her practice is rooted in her perspective as a South African of Afro‑Asian creole descent, her engagement with Sufi ceremonial traditions, and her lineage as a direct descendant of Abdullah ibn Qadi Abdus Salaam — an Indonesian prince, scholar, and resistance leader exiled to the Cape by the Dutch for opposing colonial rule. A foundational figure in the establishment of Islam in South Africa, his legacy of spiritual resilience and anti‑colonial struggle endures within Petersen’s work, shaping her ongoing exploration of resistance, faith, and knowledge.
Petersen approaches the ocean as a site of collective memory, tracing ancestral routes that converge in present-day post-apartheid Cape Town. Through this, she seeks to reclaim erased histories, reimagining and restoring figures from the past, stitching them back into contemporary existence. Her collaborative practice spans across Africa and Asia, working closely with artisans, musicians, and Sufi choirs. Through these relationships, Petersen creates spaces that restore lost connections and challenge borders imposed by colonialism. Her work becomes an invitation to reunite fragmented communities through storytelling, craft, song, and spiritual ritual.
Drawing on the concept of sound ecology, her performative and archival works trace the migration of Sufi music across centuries, positioning sound as a catalyst for liberation from dominant colonial frameworks. In doing so, she proposes alternative historical narratives, ones rooted in love, continuity, and spiritual endurance rather than violence and rupture.
Petersen’s practice also critically engages with contemporary Islamophobia, examining its entanglement with the enduring legacies of colonialism, apartheid, European and American imperialism, and the global rise of right-wing and neofascist ideologies. Her work reflects on the histories of imperialism in the Global South, while interrogating the cultural and social consequences of Westernised consumerism.
Petersen studied at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art in London (2001–03). Her works are in the collections of notable museums and galleries including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.; Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; National Museum van Wereldculturen, Rotterdam; the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba; Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam; Dallas Art Museum, Texas; and 32BIS, Tunis. Petersen has also delivered numerous public art projects, with interventions on the streets of Verona, billboards on Sunset Boulevard, public buses in Brazil, train stations in Japan, and bus terminals in Malaysia. Two significant works by Petersen are concurrently featured in both the Giardini’s Central Pavilion and the Arsenale (Sala d’Armi), as part of the 61st Venice Biennale In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouoh.