George Mahashe's Work Brings the Outside in at the Diriyah Biennale
Step inside a pavilion where the outside world flips, multiplies and slowly comes into focus at the Diriyah Biennale.
South African artist and academic George Mahashe presents ‘Mafadi’ at the 2026 Diriyah Biennale. The immersive installation invites you to step inside a camera obscura—a darkened space that uses a small aperture to project the outside world inside.
You walk into a room of white walls where everything outside is brought inside without any digital technology. During the day, images appear immediately, and the longer you stay, the brighter they become. You see people moving across the ceiling and the floor—a multiplicity of the very scene you entered from. At night, the room is dark at first, and the images slowly emerge as your eyes adjust.
The work forms part of Mahashe’s ongoing project ‘Defunct Context’ (2019–ongoing), which proposes artistic interventions as laboratories for rethinking the museum, intangible heritage, and their audiences.
