COLLATION 5 | BETWEEN GHOSTS & SHADOWS
Collation 5 | Between Ghosts & Shadows took place at The Centre for the Less Good Idea from 15 to 17 October 2026, and took the form of a three-day mini-festival featuring exhibitions, installations, live performances, and a pop-up market with live DJ sets by NarowBi.
Curated by Bronwyn Lace and Neo Muyanga in collaboration with The Centre team, Collation 5 operates in the spaces and times between worlds and sees The Centre’s artists and collaborators exploring new short-form performances in a large-format Pepper’s Ghost device, as well as the Shadow Space.
Through The Centre’s smaller Pepper’s Ghost dioramas, and the use of filmed and projected shadows, Collation 5 also explores the idea of the perpetual performance, the looped image and the silhouette that moves and speaks in the absence of the human performer. The exhibition, World-making in Miniature, explored these themes through a curated selection of dioramas and installations during Collation 5.
TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING THROUGH A CONTEMPORARY LENS
How do we begin to surface the veiled narratives, the hidden histories and muted voices in contemporary and historical documents? And how can these techniques be put to work outside of still and moving image to provoke and play with complex ideas through the grammar of the body in motion?
It is between the polarities of the ghost and the shadow that Collation 5 is located.
A three-day programme of new, short-form experimental performances and installations, Collation 5 | Between Ghosts & Shadows is an exploration of some of the oldest forms of theatre-making and storytelling, merged with contemporary technologies and The Centre’s signature methodology of collective, collaborative making and play.
— David Mann
PRODUCTION FOR THE CENTRE
FOUNDER | William Kentridge
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR | Bronwyn Lace
IMPRESARIO | Neo Muyanga
MOMENTEUR – THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis
HOLDER | Dimakatso Motholo-Miya
HEAD STAGE MANAGER | Jessica Sibongile Mathe
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER | Mlungisi Tshobeka
HEAD OF CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITING | Noah Cohen
CINEMATOGRAPHER & EDITOR | Bukhosibakhe Khoza
CINEMATOGRAPHER | Kutlwano Mabusela
VIDEO EDITOR & COMPOSITOR | Octavia Sonyane
HEAD OF SOUND | Zain Vally
SOUND ENGINEERS | Ross Culverwell & Thando Mpungose
PHOTOGRAPHERS | Zivanai Matangi & Bash Hops
WRITER & HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS | David Mann
CONTENT CREATOR | Jaden Mosadi
GRAPHIC DESIGNER | Marcus Neustetter
SCENOGRAPHER & COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Malaka
COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Makone
ASSISTANT COSTUME & PROPS DESIGNER | Philani Masedi
DRESSERS | Thato Mahlangu & Molebogeng Phiri
TECHNICAL & LIGHTING DIRECTOR | Michael Inglis
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN | Themba Mthimkulu
EQUIPMENT MANAGER | Bongani Mpofu
LIGHTING & AV SUPPLIER | Gearhouse Splitbeam
HOUSEKEEPING & SPACE MANAGER | Gracious Dube & Nolwazi Ndlovu
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR | Jacqueline Ndelu
ADMINISTRATOR | Thembelihle Hadebe
TECHNICAL COORDINATOR | Ruby Friedman
SPECIAL THANKS
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE STUDIO
Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo, Damon Garstang, Anne McIlleron, Anne Blom, Taryn Buccellato, Jessica Jones, Chris-Waldo de Wet, Jacques van Staden, Joey Netshiombo, Diego Sillands & Thandi Nkabinde
THE OFFICE performing arts + film
Thanks to Archive Research Gail Behrmann, Anna Seiderer & Julien Faure-Conorton for sourcing archival films.