• WHAT'S ON AT THE CENTRE | JULY 2026
  • AT THE CENTRE
    • ABOUT
    • COLLATION 4 | THE MASKANDALIFICATION OF OPERA (2026)
    • COLLATION 3 | THE UNEXPECTED CITY (2025)
    • COLLATION 2 | SOUNDING PICTURES: LIVE SCORES TO SHORT SILENT FILMS (2024)
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The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

  • WHAT'S ON AT THE CENTRE | JULY 2026
  • AT THE CENTRE
    • ABOUT
    • COLLATION 4 | THE MASKANDALIFICATION OF OPERA (2026)
    • COLLATION 3 | THE UNEXPECTED CITY (2025)
    • COLLATION 2 | SOUNDING PICTURES: LIVE SCORES TO SHORT SILENT FILMS (2024)
    • COLLATION 1 | ON AIR: VISUAL RADIO PLAYS (2024)
  • SO Academy
    • ABOUT
    • TÊTE-À-TÊTE | ARTISTS TO PRODUCERS (2026)
    • SO | PRACTICE & TÊTE-À-TÊTE
    • THINKING IN (2020 - 2025)
    • IN CONVERSATION ARCHIVE (2017 – 2025)
    • HOW | Showing the Making (2022 - 2026)
    • THE OPEN MOMENT (2024 - 2026)
    • DR JAMES BARRY WORKSHOPS (2024)
    • THE HEAD & THE LOAD | ACTIVATIONS (2023)
    • MOTLHANA KALANA INCUBATOR (2023)
    • A GATHERING IN A BETTER WORLD (2023)
    • The Centre of Somewhere (2022 - 2023)
    • 2ndary REVISIONS (2022)
    • WOVEN WITH BROWN THREAD (2021)
  • THE CENTRE OUTSIDE THE CENTRE
    • ABOUT
    • 2026
    • 2025
    • CFLGI x FONDATION CARTIER (2024)
    • 2024
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
  • FOR ONCE
    • ABOUT
    • FOR ONCE ARCHIVE (2017 - 2024)
    • A KAFKA MOMENT (2021)
    • A CONSIDERED 3 MINUTES (2020/2021)
    • THE POETRY MINUTE (2021)
    • A GODOT MOMENT (2020)
    • ODD PORTRAITS OF THIS PLACE (2021)
    • THE HIGHWAY NOTICE PROJECT (2020/2021)
    • THE LONG MINUTE (2020)
  • Season Archive
    • SEASON 11 | NOVEMBER 2025
    • SEASON 10 | OCTOBER 2023
    • SEASON 09 | October 2022
    • SEASON 08 | October 2021
    • Season 07 | April 2020 / September 2021
    • Season 06 | October 2019
    • Season 05 | April 2019
    • Season 04 | October 2018
    • Season 03 | April 2018
    • Season 02 | October 2017
    • Season 01 | March 2017
  • Tickets
  • SO | ACADEMY BOOKINGS
  • THE TEAM
  • FRIENDS OF THE LESS GOOD IDEA
  • About

UPDATE: TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE SOLD OUT

THE OPEN MOMENT | OF GHOSTS GREAT AND SMALL

On Friday 31 July, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presents The Open Moment | Of Ghosts Great and Small led by Bronwyn Lace, Neo Muyanga, and William Kentridge.

For the past month, The Centre has been revisiting the Pepper’s Ghost, in miniaturised and enlarged formats, exploring new performative possibilities in both. What is it to distil a performance and stage it inside a diorama? Similarly, what emerges when we fit an entire chorus inside of the Pepper’s Ghost?

Operating across varying dimensions, from the extra-large to the ultra-small, this experiment sees a group of multidisciplinary artists engaging in live, spontaneous scoring and contemporary response to archival materials – including films, autochromes, and contemporary photography – to unsettle and surface the narratives they find there.

Led by Kentridge, Muyanga, Lace, and a host of collaborating artists, The Open Moment emerges from this context and will be an opportunity for audiences to witness the collective practice of shaping and exploring new work in these formats – both as an exhibition of dioramas and a selection of live performances in the large Pepper's Ghost.

The Open Moment | Of Ghosts Great and Small also offers an early look into some of the early works and ideas that will feature in Collation 5, a three-day performance programme taking place at The Centre in October 2026.

DATE | FRIDAY 31 JULY 2026
TIME | 19H00
VENUE | THE EVENTS SPACE, THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA, ARTS ON MAIN, 264 FOX STREET, MABONENG
DURATION | 60-90 MINUTES
TICKETS | R150

BOOK YOUR TICKET

Photographs by Zivanai Matangi