FROM VEVEY TO NEW YORK
Two artworks produced by Images Vevey enter the MoMA
International recognition for Images Vevey: two pieces produced in Vevey are currently on view at the MoMA in New York as part of New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging, a prestigious annual programme that brings together around fifteen artists regarded as among the most important of their generation.
This year, Lebohang Kganye, winner of the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, is one of the selected artists, highlighting the international impact of the projects supported by the Swiss institution dedicated to photography and visual arts.
Installation view of “ Staging Memories ”at the MoMA in New York, as part of the exhibition “ New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging ” The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo : Robert Gerhardt.
The installation
Staging Memories
Conceived and produced by Images Vevey following the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, Staging Memories by Lebohang Kganye brings together photography, collage, and stagecraft through large-scale visual machines in motion. It takes the form of a kinetic installation whose intricate assembly and moving parts form a technical achievement in themselves, evoking Swiss watchmaking through its fusion of precision, mechanics, and aesthetics.
At the scale of a theatrical set, photographic silhouettes mounted on rotating axes cast a dynamic shadow play across the walls, reminiscent of a giant pop-up book. Together, the six animated modules imagine a utopian future in which Nelson Mandela returns to South Africa.
In 2021, Kganye submitted this ambitious concept of mechanized pieces to the Grand Prix Images Vevey. The award enabled her to bring the project to life: a prototype was developed and produced by Images Vevey and premiered internationally at the Biennale Images Vevey in 2022.
When MoMA approached Images Vevey in July 2024 to exhibit these large-scale works, the challenge lay in making them fully operational moving pieces. Finalized in 2025, the completed works were refined and engineered by the specialists at Images Vevey in their definitive version for the MoMA exhibition.
Wall texts for Lebohang Kganye’s installations at the MoMA, as part of the exhibition New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging
What Makes New Photography
so important
Launched in 1985, New Photography is one of MoMA’s flagship programmes and, for the past forty years, has served as an international barometer of contemporary photography: each year, the museum unveils a selection of essential artists.
In 2025, the focus turns to 13 artists from Johannesburg, Kathmandu, Mexico City, and New Orleans, whom the museum considers among the most significant of their generation, and whose practices expand the boundaries of the photographic medium.
Among them is Lebohang Kganye, with her project awarded the Grand Prix Images Vevey and produced by Images Vevey in 2022.
Grand Prix Images Vevey
The Grand Prix Images Vevey is one of the most prestigious and long-standing photography awards in Europe. This international award supports an original project with a CHF 40,000 grant, full production of the work, curatorial guidance, and an international premiere in Vevey.
Lebohang Kganye was awarded the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022 (with the first public presentation in 2022).
Abdulhamid Kircher, laureate of the 2025/2026 edition, is currently working on his project, which will premiere internationally in September 2026 during the 10th edition of the Biennale Images Vevey.
Writer and photographer Teju Cole, president of the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022 jury, awarded the prize to Lebohang Kganye during the opening ceremony of the Biennale Images Vevey in September 2022.
The artist
Lebohang Kganye (b. 1990) lives and works in Johannesburg. A leading voice among a new generation of post-apartheid artists, her work explores memory and identity through a multidisciplinary practice combining photography, collage, performance, and installation.
Winner of the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, she represented South Africa at the 2022 Venice Biennale and has exhibited in Hamburg, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Berlin, and New York. She has since received other major distinctions, including the Foam Paul Huf Award (2022) and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2024).
Lebohang Kganye
and Images Vevey
- 2020 — Presentation of Lebohang Kganye’s Ke sale teng series at the Biennale Images Vevey
- 2021/2022 — Winner of the Grand Prix Images Vevey (Switzerland)
- 2022 — Production and first public presentation of the Staging Memories installation in Vevey
- 2022 — Winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award (Netherlands)
- 2024 — Winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (Germany)
- 2025/2026 — Two works produced by Images Vevey presented at the MoMA in New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging (14.09.2025–17.01.2026)
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
- New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging
- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- Dates: 14 September 2025 → 17 January 2026
- Curators: Lucy Gallun, Roxana Marcoci, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Caitlin Ryan
LEBOHANG KGANYE IN CONVERSATION with Nathalie Herschdorfer
Video (making-of / artist portrait) Staging Memories
CONVERSATIONS series
A Photo Elysée × Images Vevey programme