In episode 15, writer and curator Enuma Okoro speaks with South African artist Berni Searle (b. 1964, Cape Town, South Africa, where she lives and works) about the layered languages of the body, memory, and perception. Working across photography, video, and sculpture, Searle explores how narratives are constructed and sustained through history, identity, and place, often against the backdrop of colonialism, apartheid, and their afterlives.

“I don’t think art alone can change the world,” she says, “but it has a role to play.” Using her own body as a point of departure, she develops works that move between presence and absence, visibility and concealment. In her Colour Me (1998-2000) series, she covers her body in spices such as turmeric and paprika, materials that carry traces of trade, migration, heritage, and cultural memory.

They also discuss Searle’s contribution to the Venice Biennale, shaped by the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, that continues to resonate beyond her passing, committed to making visible voices and perspectives long considered peripheral.

Ahead of that, her work can be experienced firsthand in Berlin : Searle’s exhibition at PSM Gallery opens during Gallery Weekend Berlin on May 1, 2026.