Staging Africa through its own lens in Shanghai

Another fascinating piece in this section is Passage (2017), a three-channel video installation by South African visual artist Mohau Modisakeng, presented at South Africa's pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. In the projections, three characters travel separately in white wooden row boats that slowly fill with water and eventually sink, submerging the passengers in the dark depths. The work references the dark history of the slave trade and the forced transportation of African people across the Atlantic Ocean. The piece is also hailed as especially relevant to today's refugee crisis.